Lot 1154: John Binns (1772-1860) Fine American and European Furniture, Silver, Folk and Decorative Arts and Clocks

Declaration of Independence in Congress July 4, 1776, 1819 Engraving Published by John Binns, The Democratic Press of Philadelphia sight 35 x 24 (88.9 x 60.9cm)

88.9 x 60.9cm

By 1818, then more than forty years after Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, various publishers sought to produce engravings of the document for sale. By 1819, John Binns, then the publisher of The Democratic Press in Philadelphia, had designed and produced this engraving and sent a proof to Thomas Jefferson, who approved the work as an accurate facsimile. An eagle appears above a portrait of George Washington, surrounded by Hancock and Jefferson. The remainder of the frame around the engraved text of the document consists of medallions of the seals of the thirteen original colonies. At the bottom of the engraving is the signature of Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, which was intended to attest to the accuracy of both the Declaration and the signatures of the then aged and/or deceased signers.