Federal Prints

This is a hand-colored stipple and line engraving entitled "First Blow for Liberty," after the renowned artist Felix O.C. Darley. The composition is a spirited depiction of the Battl...

Antique American Federal covered box in burl walnut with three stripes of mahogany wood, the keyhole with mother-of-pearl inlay, abalone inlaid detail to lid. Dimensions: 3.5" H x 1...

Presented is an original Benjamin Franklin signature, presented framed with an etched portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Jacques Reich. The cut signature reads “Benja. Franklin” with a dramatic flourish, or paraph, on the “n” in Franklin. Franklin signed in black ink. This rare cut Franklin signature was one of several prominent American statesman autographs collected together and bound in a 1809 volume of the Baltimore Evening Post. Paired with the cut signature is a beautifully executed etching of Franklin by artist Jacques Reich. Printed in 1903, Reich based his portrait off the famous 1778 Joseph Siffred Duplessis oil painting of Franklin. Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont commissioned both the oil painting and a terracotta medallion with Franklin’s profile from Duplessis during Franklin’s time in France. The painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1779 and quickly emerged as the most iconic image of this legendary statesman, later used on the American 100 dollar bill. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin was a true renaissance man. He was an author, politician, scientist, inventor, and diplomat. Franklin was instrumental in the formation of the United States and served as the country's first ambassador to France. He is the only Founding Father to have signed all four of the key documents establishing the United States: the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris (1783), and the Constitution (1787). Benjamin Franklin was born in colonial Boston...

Presented is an 1815 engraving by Samuel Seymour, entitled The U.S. Frigate United States Capturing His Britannic Majesty's Frigate Macedonian. The print is after a similarly-titled oil painting, engagement between the United States and the Macedonian, by Thomas Birch. This hand colored engraving was published by James Webster in Philadelphia. It depicts the October 25, 1812 battle fought near Madeira between the US Navy heavy frigate USS United States...

Presented is a rare and magnificent early printing of the Declaration of Independence on silk. The silk broadside was made by H. Brunet, in Lyon, France specifically for the American market. The design was based on the 1819 engraving on paper by William Woodruff. Printed in 1820, this silk broadside was one of the earliest printings of the Declaration, in any form, sold to the American public. Following the War of 1812, Americans began to look back, for the first time with historical perspective, on the era of the founding of the country. With nostalgia and curiosity, many Americans began to examine the details of the nation’s founding. Documents like the debates of the Constitutional Convention, first laws of the United States, and the Declaration were printed for public consumption for the first time. Entrepreneurial publishers hoped to fill this demand and rushed to produce the first engraved printing of the Declaration of Independence. The first to do so was Benjamin Owen Tyler in 1818, who produced an elegantly staid engraving with impressively faithful facsimile signatures. Tyler’s business rival John Binns started his own design more than a year before Tyler, yet his more decorative engraving was not published until 1819, two months on the heels of an eerily similar Declaration design by Philadelphia printer William Woodruff. In this very competitive market, Binns went so far as to sue Woodruff for stealing his design, but was unsuccessful in his lawsuit. These three Declaration designs were followed in 1820 by an ornamental broadside by Eleazar Huntington and the silk broadside offered here. In this 1820 design by Frenchman H. Brunet, the text of the Declaration of Independence is printed in black ink at the center of the silk. The important text is framed by a decorative leaf and acorn wreath border. The border contains distinctive portraits of the first three Presidents, George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferon, two of whom were still living at the time, as well as the official seals of the original thirteen states. The seals and portraits are surmounted by a patriotic display of trumpets, flags, two overflowing cornucopias, and a spread-wing Federal eagle. Although almost identical to the Woodruff broadside, this silk by Brunet differs in several ways. The most noticeable is the addition of a strong black outer border, punctuated with repeating, white six-pointed stars. The arrangement of the body of the text and the calligraphic signatures are slightly different. The title is almost exactly the same, with the additional reference to Woodruff as inspiration in this Brunet printing. It reads "To the People of the United States this Engraving of Declaration of Independence is most respectfully inscribed: Woodruff.” Brunet’s signature can be found in script, wrapping around the bottom center medallion: "Lith di H. Brunet Cie. a Lyon." Although this broadside is not pictured in Herbert Collins' definitive "Threads of History: Americana Recorded on Cloth," Collins refers to its existence in his description of a very similar design lithographed by "Decomberause" of Lyons, France. Lyons was a hub of French silk production during the 1820s and 30s. Interestingly, Collins calls this example a "bandana," but the distinctly rectangular shape is more consistent with a broadside on silk, a documented practice of the time. The other similar examples listed by Collins are more square and might better be considered bandanas. Between 1820 and 1840, it was a common practice to print a very limited number of presentation copies of important broadsides on silk. To give an example, the original ledger book...

Vintage print on board of Thomas Sully’s 1818 portrait of Major John Biddle; original painting is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Major John Biddle...

Lithograph, Private Signals of the Merchants of New York, a colored print on paper display of various House Flags flown on New York clipper ships in the 19th century, within a gadroon style border, inscribed lower right "Published by W.P. Morgan, 31 Rutger street, NY, John Groy, Printer"; inscribed lower centre "Sold by James D. Morgan & Co., No. 3 Broad street, Blank Book Manufacturers and Stationers, Importers of Foreign Stationary". Reprinted circa 1920s, and mounted in a vintage Art Deco gold frame.

American Audubon hand colored lithograph by Macmillan, under conservation glass, framed in burl walnut, long-billed curlew in Charleston Harbor. The Birds of America, Number 47, Plat...

Pair of folio size original hand colored lithographs of American Indians, created by Thomas McKenney and James Hall based on oil paintings by Charles Bird King(1785-1862) for their three volume set ''History of the Indian Tribes of North America'' (1837-44). The full body portrait of the Chippeway Chief, Okee-Makee-Quid, depicts him wearing a multi colored headdress and a blue tunic over black leggings:, with face mask resting on his chest, and holding a staff in one hand and a pipe in the other. The half-length portrait of the Shawnee Chief, Qua-Ta-Wa-Pea (or Col. Lewis, as he liked to be called) shows him in red hat, and grey-green cape...