Apr 13, 2023 - Sale 2633

Sale 2633 - Lot 11

Price Realized: $ 3,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1776.) Pair of Massachusetts House of Representatives resolutions on the war. Letterpress broadsides, each signed in type by the House speaker and by John Avery as Deputy Secretary, each laid down circa 1900 with newspaper clippings to stiff scrapbook sheets; moderate wear and toning. With circa 1900 provenance note removed from original frame. [Boston]: [Benjamin Edes], December 1776
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"Resolved, that the Selectmen of each Town in this State . . . deliver out of those narrow Axes kept in such Town for the Use of the Militia upon an Alarm, or other Axes, One Ax for every Six Men now Raised or Drafted . . . to the Captain that shall be appointed over these Men." Letterpress broadside, 4 3/4 x 6 inches; 4 December 1776. Cushing, Massachusetts Laws 965; Evans 14872; Ford, Massachusetts Broadsides 2004. 3 in ESTC .

"Whereas it is of the greatest Importance to the Safety of this State that a large supply of Money be immediately put into the Public Treasury. . . . Resolved, that the Committees of Correspondence, Safety and Inspection of every Town and Place in this State be and hereby are directed immediately to open Subscription Lists [for]. . . the Loan of such Sums of Money as they can possibly spare for the Service of this State, for . . . Treasurer's Notes." Letterpress broadside, 7 1/2 x 6 inches; 5 December 1776. One in ESTC (Harvard University); not in Evans or Ford.

Only one each of these acts have been traced at auction--also offered together, at a Sotheby's sale in 2004. Provenance: formerly framed with a note reading "Found among the papers of Abraham Smith 1749-1826, blacksmith and patriot, member 1st Revolutionary Congress, of Bristol Co., Mass, and on Committee of Correspondence 1774; Postmaster, New Bedford, Mass., 1806-1826." Consigned by a great-great-great-great-grandson of Abraham Howland Smith (1749-1826).