Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana
Sotheby’s is pleased to invite participation in New York’s October sale, “Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana.” The sale brings together rare and unique property across a range of subjects, including Americana, cartography, travel, and literature.
In this sale, we are proud to feature two highly important pieces of Americana. The first, dated 6 April 1789, is an autograph letter signed by Richard Henry Lee—the congressional delegate who introduced the resolution that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States … absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown”—to George Washington, informing him of his unanimous election in the Senate to the office of the Presidency. The second, in the foment of Civil War, is a partially printed document signed, in which President Abraham Lincoln extends his blockade of Confederate ports to include Virginia and North Carolina. In this order to Secretary Seward to affix the Seal of the United States to his proclamation of the blockade, Lincoln deleted Maryland from the list of proscribed states, perhaps securing Maryland’s ostensible loyalty to the Union for the duration of the rebellion.
12pm
Sotheby's - New York
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY
40.7662984, -73.9537155
Sotheby's - New York
