Jun 27, 2024 - Sale 2675

Sale 2675 - Lot 135

Price Realized: $ 594
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(EARLY AMERICAN IMPRINT.) Legal form printed by James Adams, just before he became the first printer in Delaware. Printed bond form, completed in manuscript and signed by the principal Arthur Howe of Edenton, PA and a witness, obligating him to the firm of Halsey & Jackson. One page, 3½ x 7½ inches, docketed on verso; fold, paper seal, light offsetting. Philadelphia: James Adams, 1761, completed 8 May 1765
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James Adams (circa 1725-1792) learned the printing trade in his native Ireland, and on emigrating to Philadelphia circa 1753 spent seven years working for Benjamin Franklin's firm, Franklin & Hall. He very briefly operated his own printing shop in Philadelphia "in Fifth-street, near the German-Church." Competition was fierce in Philadelphia, and by 24 September 1761 he opened the first printing press in Wilmington, DE. He and his sons were the only printers in Delaware until 1785. See Ewald Rink, "Printing in Delaware 1761-1800," pages 11-13.

We find only one other product of the short-lived James Adams printing press in Philadelphia: a bill of lading shipping form which begins "Shipped in good order and well-conditioned, by [blank]." 3 examples of that form are recorded in OCLC. The present form is unrecorded.