Dec 01, 2011 - Sale 2263

Sale 2263 - Lot 47

Price Realized: $ 16,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
APRIL 1776 CONNECTICUT EDITION (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) Paine, Thomas. Common Sense, Addressed to the Inhabitants of America. 64 pages. 8vo, makeshift early stitched wrappers consisting of four worn leaves from an unrelated 1787 pamphlet; only minor wear and toning; early owner's inscriptions on title page, page 33, and final page. Norwich and New London, CT: Judah P. Spooner [1776]
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Additional Details

Two editions were printed in Norwich, CT from the 14 February Bradford Philadelphia edition, and were sold by both Spooner and Timothy Green in New London. This edition, the latter of the two, was advertised as "just published" in the 12 April 1776 Connecticut Gazette of New London. It includes the Appendix and Address to Quakers. The wrappers are pages 25 through 32 of Goodrich's Principles of Civil Union (Hartford, 1787). Adams, Independence 222r; Bristol B4313; Gimbel CS-50.
Provenance: Original owner Josiah Chandler (1731-1795) of Pomfret, CT, inscriptions on title and final pages; son-in-law Samuel White (1758-1847) of Pomfret, signature on wrapper; later owned by George Edward Luther (1850-1897), son Willard Blackinton Luther (1879-1962), and thence by descent to the consignor. In the 1930s, Willard Blackinton Luther required each of his sons to read a modern edition of Common Sense. When they were finished, he then showed them the present copy with great ceremony as "the real thing."