?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1778.) Vasseur, engraver; after Borel. L'Amérique Indépendante, Dédiée au Congrés des Etats Unis de l'Amérique. Engraving, 19¾ x 14½ inches; minor foxing and wear. Paris, 1778
A French allegorical portrait of Benjamin Franklin, dedicated to the Continental Congress and demonstrating the affection for Franklin felt so widely in France. He is shown surrounded by female allegorical figures of America, Wisdom, Prudence, and Liberty, watching as a warrior beats a crowned figure into submission. The vignette at the bottom shows a chain of 13 links, each inscribed with the name of one of the original states. At the center of the vignette is a harp copied from an $8 Continental currency note, which Franklin loaned to the artist for this purpose. Fowble 142; Sellers, Franklin pages 120-121, 195-197. 4 in OCLC.
