(NEW YORK) Autograph album compiled at the 1846 New York Con

Sale 2580 - Lot 184

Price Realized: $ 390

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

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(NEW YORK.) Autograph album compiled at the 1846 New York Constitutional Convention. [26] manuscript pages, including approximately 147 autographs on 23 pages. 4to, original 1/4 calf, moderate wear; elaborately signed "C. Swackhamer" on front flyleaf, later inked private library stamp on front pastedown. Albany, NY, 1846

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The new 1846 constitution created the New York Court of Appeals, and granted the state's voters the right to select its Attorney General and Secretary of State. This artfully arranged album was compiled by delegate Conrad Swackhamer of Brooklyn, a 31-year-old mechanic and one of the few artisans among the lawyers and gentleman farmers at the convention. His calligraphic title page reads "Autographs of the Members of the State Convention to Revise the Constitution of the State of New York, 1846." The autographs are semi-alphabetical, with most protected by original tissue guards. The first 18 leaves are delegates, followed by a second title page, 3 leaves of officers and staff, and 2 leaves of newspaper reporters. The most notable signer is delegate Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886), then a young New York City lawyer and much later the winner of the popular vote in the 1876 presidential election. Also spotted are former New York City mayor Robert Hunter Morris (1808-1855); and armament producer Gouverneur Kemble (1786-1875).