Lot 60: BRADFORD, WILLIAM (1663-1752). Autograph Letter Signed to Mr. [James] Alexander.

Name: BRADFORD, WILLIAM (1663-1752). Autograph Letter Signed to Mr. [James] Alexander.
Brand: Swann Auction Galleries
SKU: 0p92urrtti

Est: $1,500 USD - $2,500 USDSold:

Swann Auction GalleriesNew York, NY, USJune 05, 2008

Item Overview

Description

ZENGER'S PRINTING MASTER FACES ARREST, JUST MONTHS BEFORE ZENGER'S BRADFORD, WILLIAM (1663-1752). Autograph Letter Signed to Mr. [James] Alexander. One page, 149 x 160 mm, dampstaining and a chip affecting date line, docketed verso by Anderson. New York, 17 August 1734

Artist or Maker

William Loring Bradford

Condition Report

All items are offered for sale subject to Swann Galleries' standard terms and conditions of sale, which are published in our catalogues.

Notes

Bradford became the first printer in Pennsylvania in 1685. After his entanglement in a notable freedom of the press case, he left and in 1693 became the first printer in New York, where he later trained John Peter Zenger. Zenger became synonymous with freedom of the press when jailed in 1734 for printing seditious material. Bradford, in financial difficulty, faced imprisonment himself during this period. Here he writes to James Alexander (who published the newspaper which would send Zenger to jail three months later, and who would soon serve as Zenger's attorney): "As you have been my friend and attorney so I am desirous that you will be so in cases where you are not retaind against me, because I do and can depend upon your advice . . . I want to know if any one lay an action agt me in ye Mayors Court and get judgment, whether they can take out execution agt my goods while I am in custody? . . . Although I am come under this misfortune, I doubt not but to overcome it all."

Auction Details

PRINTED & MANUSCRIPT AMERICANA

Swann Auction Galleries

June 05, 2008, 10:30 AM EST

104 East 25th Street, New York, NY, 10010, US

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