- Title: Sotheby's to auction rare first printing of U.S. Constitution
- Date: 17th September 2021
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 17, 2021) (REUTERS) WORKER OF SOTHEBY'S NEW YORK HOLDING OFFICIAL FIRST-EDITION PRINTED COPY OF U.S. CONSTITUTION SCAN OF TEXT THAT STARTS WITH "WE THE PEOPLE" DOCUMENT PLACED INTO DISPLAY CASE DISPLAY SIGN WITH PRICE OF $15,000,000 - $20,000,000 MORE OF CONSTITUTION IN DISPLAY CASE WIDE OF DOCUMENTS ON DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SPECIALIST OF BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS, SELBY KIFFER, SAYING: "It's the official printing, the first printing of the final text of the United States Constitution, done probably on the evening of the 16th of September, 1787, only for the use of the delegates to the Continental Convention and for the use of the Congress of the United States. So very small edition. Of that small edition, only 11 copies survived. This is the only one that is not in a permanent institutional collection." VARIOUS OF SIDE VIEW OF CONSTITUTION CLOSE OF "ARTICLE 1." GENERAL OF CONSTITUTION ON DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SPECIALIST OF BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS, SELBY KIFFER, SAYING: "We've estimated this at $15 to $20 million dollars, which is a lot for a document, a lot for a book or manuscript, but certainly not unprecedented. We have sold things of that value. We sold the first book printed in British North America, the Bay Psalm book for $14.3 million in 2013. I think what we've used as our guide is the Declaration of Independence, the first printing of which, I think, is the only document that can be compared to this Constitution in terms of significance and influence. First printings of the Declaration of Independence are actually much more common than the Constitution. There are 28 known copies." SIGN ON WALL FOR "HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE DOROTHY TAPPER GOLDMAN COLLECTION" (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SPECIALIST OF BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS, SELBY KIFFER, SAYING: "This document and other supporting documents that we will also be selling belonged to Dorothy Tapper Goldman. Mrs. Goldman actually inherited this particular document from her husband, Howard Goldman, and it set her off on this quest to make a great collection of documents surrounding the U.S. Constitution. She had a brilliant head start by having this very rare printing. She is now selling it to fund the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation, which is dedicated to civic learning about the Constitution." VARIOUS OF CONSTITUTION ON DISPLAY, STARTING WITH, "WE THE PEOPLE" (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SPECIALIST OF BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS, SELBY KIFFER, SAYING: "Presumably, this belonged to one of the delegates to the Continental Convention or to a member of the Continental Congress. That's who this very small edition was printed for. It seems to never have left the Philadelphia area and it was consigned to us in 1988." VARIOUS OF SIDE VIEW OF CONSTITUTION CONSTITUTION ALONGSIDE OTHER CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENTS ON DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SPECIALIST OF BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS, SELBY KIFFER, SAYING: "The others that survive are mostly in libraries or still in official government repositories. For instance, the Delaware Hall of Records has one. There are two copies at the Library of Congress. The American Philosophical Society has one. So they're all in very prestigious, very important historically institutions. Somehow this one escaped. I mean, it was printed for private use. It's still in private ownership. And I'm very excited to see who the next owner might be." VARIOUS OF OTHER CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENTS ON DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SPECIALIST OF BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS, SELBY KIFFER, SAYING: "The other documents here on display, and there are many more, sort of illustrate the foment of the period that led rise to American independence and Confederation and finally the Constitution. So we have British parliamentary acts that the colonists found intolerable and rebelled against. We have the charter that preceded the U.S. Constitution, the so-called Articles of Convention, which proved to be inefficient." WORKER HOLDING CONSTITUTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SPECIALIST OF BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS, SELBY KIFFER, SAYING: "The Constitution has been in effect for 234 years. It's the longest lasting charter of this form in world history. It's as relevant today as it was in 1787. People didn't know if they wanted this Constitution. There were vivid debates about whether it should be ratified or not. And those debates continue today. I think what we shouldn't lose sight of is that all sides of the political spectrum still come back to the Constitution, try to make their points from it, try to support their points based on it. It's the foundational document that's going to last, I think, long beyond the current political atmosphere." VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF SOTHEBY'S NEW YORK
- Embargoed: 1st October 2021 21:06
- Keywords: 1787 America's founding fathers Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation Philadelphia Sotheby's U.S. Constitution auction house documents first-edition printed copy
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001EV3YTDZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: An extremely rare official first-edition printed copy of the U.S. Constitution, as adopted by America's founding fathers at a convention in Philadelphia in 1787, will be put up for bid by Sotheby's in mid-November, the auction house announced on Friday (September 17).
Sotheby's, announcing the upcoming sale of the document on the 234th anniversary of its signing by delegates to the Constitutional Convention, estimated its value at $15 million to $20 million.
"It's the official printing, the first printing of the final text of the United States Constitution done probably on the evening of the 16th of September, 1787, only for the use of the delegates to the Continental Convention and for the use of the Congress of the United States. So very small edition of that small edition. Only 11 copies survive," Sotheby's Spenior Specialist for Books and Manuscripts, Selby Kiffer, said in an interview. "This is the only one that is not in a permanent institutional collection."
It last sold for $165,000 in 1988, when it was acquired by the late S. Howard Goldman, a New York real estate developer and private collector of American autographs, historical documents and manuscripts.
His wife, Dorothy Tapper Goldman, is offering it for sale, with all proceeds going to the charitable foundation established in her name to further the public's understanding of democracy, the auction house said.
Copies from that first printing, bearing no signatures and believed to have originally numbered about 500, were also furnished to delegates of the Constitutional Convention itself. Two surviving copies are housed at the Library of Congress.
The Constitution's first printing is considerably rarer than even the first edition of the 1776 Declaration of Independence, Sotheby's said.
The first constitutional printing contains only the seven original articles laying out the framework for the U.S. national government and its powers, its relationship to the states and procedures used to subsequently ratify and amend the Constitution itself.
The Bill of Rights, consisting of the first 10 amendments added to the Constitution in 1791, are not included.
Although not signed, the six-page document going up for sale includes a list of the Constitutional Convention delegates attesting to its adoption in 1787 and a letter of submission from George Washington, who presided over the convention, to the Continental Congress.
Regarded as the oldest, continuing codified government charter in the world, the U.S. Constitution was devised to replace the young nation's first, largely inefficient charter, the Articles of Confederation.
It was ratified by the states in 1788 and went into effect the following year. It has since been amended 27 times.
Sotheby's said the Goldman copy would be offered for bid at a New York evening sales event on a November date to be announced, marking the first time a manuscript or historical document will be presented for auction along with major pieces of fine art.
"There were vivid debates about whether it should be ratified or not," Kiffer said. "And those debates continue today. I think what we shouldn't lose sight of is that all sides of the political spectrum still come back to the Constitution, try to make their points from it, try to support their points based on it. It's the foundational document that's going to last, I think, long beyond the current political atmosphere."
(Production by: Hussein Al Waaile and Dan Fastenberg) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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