(FRANKLIN BENJAMIN) JOSEPH COSEY Forgery of autograph letter

Sale 2650 - Lot 22

Price Realized: $ 688

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

FAMOUS FORGER (FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN.) JOSEPH COSEY. Forgery of autograph letter signed to Benjamin Rush, purporting to request that he not include a dedication to Franklin in his upcoming work on "Moral Sense." 1 page, 6 1/2x8 inches; separations at folds repaired verso with linen, faint uneven toning. "Philad'a, March 6, 1786"

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"During our long acquaintance you have shown many instances of your regard for me; yet I must now desire you to add one more to the number; which is, that, if you publish your ingenious discourse on the Moral Sense, you will totally omit and suppress that most extravagant encomium on your friend Franklin, which hurt me exceedingly in the unexpected hearing, and will mortify me beyond conception, if it should appear from the press. . . ."
In February 1786, Benjamin Rush delivered a lecture before the American Philosophical Society entitled Enquiry into the Influences of Physical Causes upon the Moral Faculty; the lecture was published at Philadelphia in the same year, with a dedication page: "To His Excellency Benjamin Franklin . . . the following Oration is respectfully inscribed, By his grateful Friend, And humble Servant, The Author."