NEW YORK CITY – American history from the Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries was featured in Swann Galleries’ sale of printed and manuscript Americana on March 10. A religious text of note included a first edition of the Book of Mormon, Palmyra, N.Y., 1830. Released days before the official establishment of the church on April 6, 1830, the first edition is the only edition listing Joseph Smith as the “author and proprietor” rather than as the translator. The missionary tract brought $75,000, including buyer’s premium.

The Book of Mormon was printed not only for believers, but as a missionary tract. The present example found its way into the hands of a man named John McCoy in 1837, presumably somewhere near Kirtland, Ohio. He signed the book in several places, and wrote on page 158, “Joseph McCoy 1837, this nothing but the trooth I think.” However, the inscriptions on the front flyleaf dated 1838 tell a different story: “I say Jo Smith is a raskal. The Mormon Bible, believe not this book.” On the rear flyleaf, someone else (signature David Hanna?) has told their version of the Solomon Spaulding story, and on verso in a third hand is written “Believe not this record….” Finally, Ida Blaker inscribed the verso of the front flyleaf on 9 October 1906, without comment. The consignor purchased it at a Maine antiques store in the 1990s.

Equally noteworthy lots in the sale were the Bay Psalm Book at $62,500 and the Mexican broadside announcing the fall of the Alamo, which sold for $75,000.

Watch for a full review of the sale in a future issue.