(MORMONS) The Book of Mormon

Sale 2108 - Lot 204

Price Realized: $ 180,000

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

Estimate: $ 70,000 - $ 90,000

SIGNED BY AN APOSTLE (MORMONS.) The Book of Mormon. 588, [2] pages, including the Testimony leaf in the rear. 8vo, original calf, covers worn, small area on rear cover patched, backstrip blind-tooled (without gilt), label intact; scattered foxing, title page and endpapers browned, small tear to front free endpaper, lacks the front blank; contemporary inscription on the front free endpaper indicating that the book had been given to Denison Root by Hyrum Smith, other inscriptions. Palmyra: E. B. Grandin, 1830

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Additional Details

first edition. signed by orson pratt. Pratt, an original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, has signed on the front free endpaper and dated the signature 4 December 1830. The younger brother of Parley Pratt, he entered the Church in September 1830 and was ordained an elder just a few days before signing this copy. His first mission was to Colesville, New York, approximately 20 miles from Denison Root's home in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania. It seems likely given the proximity of Lanesboro to Colesville that Root attended a meeting and had Pratt "autograph" his copy. We could find little information about Root, beyond being identified in census data for Susquehanna County. There is no mention of him in Blackman's History of Susquenahanna and only a passing reference in Stocker's history of the county (page 564). It is likely, however, that Root knew the Hale family well and had met Joseph Smith during his time there. The inscription presumably written in Root's hand reads: "This Book is the Property of Denison Root Presented to him By Hyrum Smith." Below this inscription is a later one (which is faded and difficult to read) by Charles Hatch detailing when he received the book from Root. While Joseph and Hyrum Smith gave away many copies of the first edition of the Book of Mormon, few such "association" copies have surfaced for sale -- let alone one signed by an original Apostle. Crawley 1; Flake 595; Howes S623; Grolier American 37; Sabin 83028; Church 1342; Streeter Sale 2262.