United States Constitution | A commemorative copy, signed by President Franklin Pierce

United States Constitution

Constitution of the United States, as Proposed by the Convention held at Philadelphia, September 17, 1787, and since Ratified by the Several States; with the Amendments thereto. … Printed for the Use of the House of Representatives. Washington: Robert Armstrong, 1852

8vo (222 x 140 mm). Text interleaved with blank pages (of which 45 are signed, most on both sides); some text and ink offsetting, some light text browning toward the end. Contemporary black morocco gilt, brown coated endpapers; spine split down the center with losses at head and foot.

A commemorative copy, signed by President Franklin Pierce in a very bold hand on the first blank following the title. Also signed by Cabinet members Secretary of State W. L. Marcy, Secretary of the Treasury J. Guthrie, Attorney-General Caleb Cushing, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, Secretary of the Navy J. C. Dobbin, and 315 members of the Senate and House including Stephen A. Douglas (facing p. 8), Hannibal Hamlin, William H. Seward, Charles Sumner, W. P. Fessenden, Sam Houston (facing p. 20), Jesse D. Bright who became Vice-President on the death of William R. King, John C. Breckenridge (facing p. 90), and David R. Atchison of Missouri (President for one day, 4 March 1849, as President pro tem of the Senate the day before Zachary Taylor's inauguration). A remarkably complete roster of Pierce's Cabinet, the Senate, and House of Representatives at the time, compiled at the request of Connecticut Representative Nathan Belcher.

PROVENANCE

John F. Fleming (Christie's New York, 18 November 1988, lot 131)