Brunk Auctions – Important Historic Americana Auction
September 27 & 28, 2024
828-254-6846 www.brunkauctions.com
info@brunkauctions.com

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — An incredibly rare, original printed archetype of the United States Constitution, signed by Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson, will be auctioned on September 28, 2024, in Asheville, North Carolina at Brunk Auctions. The auction will begin with a starting bid of $1 million, without reserve. It is expected to sell for much more.

The ratification copy of the Constitution will be sold at Brunk Auctions on September 28, the 237th anniversary of the day Congress passed the ratification resolution.

Drafted in Philadelphia and signed by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, the proposed Constitution was delivered on September 18, 1787, to the Confederation Congress that was then meeting in New York on the site that is now the Federal Hall National Memorial at 26 Wall Street. After heated debate, on September 28 Congress resolved to send it to the states for ratification. To that end, Charles Thomson, the Secretary of Congress, ordered 100 copies of the printed archetype, only a fraction of which he signed for sending to the legislatures of the 13 original states. It is that resolution, along with Thomson’s signature, that makes the present copy an official ratification edition of the Constitution.

This incredibly rare document was discovered in 2022 at Hayes Farm, a 184-acre plantation in Edenton, N.C. The property was purchased in 1765 by Samuel Johnston, who in 1787-89 was governor of North Carolina and presided over the state’s two ratification conventions. In 1865, it was acquired by the Wood family, which has held it for seven generations. The document was found inside an old filing cabinet in 2022 when the property was being cleared out and sold to North Carolina for preservation under the care of the Elizabeth Vann Moore Foundation with assistance from the Edenton Historical Commission and the Town of Edenton.

Previously, most of the books, documents and artifacts from the home were donated to North Carolina, and a recreation of the Hayes Library was built at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

According to auctioneer Andrew Brunk, “James Madison wrote that the Constitution ‘was nothing more than a draft of a plan, nothing but a dead letter, until life and validity were breathed into it by the voice of the people, speaking through several State Conventions.’” Brunk added, “this simple looking version is what started breathing life into the Constitution.”

Seth Kaller, a renowned historic document expert who is collaborating with Brunk on the sale, noted that “This is a unique opportunity to own a cornerstone of our democracy, particularly at this time in our nation’s history. It also reminds us of the crucial role New York played in the founding of America.”

Kaller was involved in bidding on the Constitutional Convention printing that Sotheby’s sold on November 18, 2021, for $43.2 million to Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, LLC. In 1988, that same document had sold for $165,000. According to Kaller, “The ratification copy now up for auction is rarer and arguably more significant, but the consignor gave Brunk the luxury of selling it without reserve, with a starting bid of $1,000,000. The market will decide what the Constitution is worth to us today.”

For more details about the September 28 auction, info@brunkauctions.com or www.brunkauctions.com.

Brunk Auctions is proud to offer an exceedingly rare and important original printed, signed archetype of the Constitution of the United States on September 28th. This national treasure was tucked away for generations at Hayes Plantation in Edenton, North Carolina, an 1821 National Historic Landmark, and home to two of the state’s most prominent families for at least seven generations. It is one of the most important printed documents in history. Other rare documents from the same cache include an exceptionally rare first edition of the Articles of Confederation, published in 1776 and bearing the name of Joseph Hewes; a printing of the 1808 Price-Strother Map of North Carolina, one of only about a dozen known; Thomas Jefferson and John Adams related documents, North Carolina and Georgia ephemera, colonial currency, and early silver.
Important American Paintings will include a double-sided Andrew Wyeth, Undercover and Evening at Kuerners, Washington Crossing the Delaware after Emanuel Leutze, works by George de Forest Brush, Theodore Butler, Edward Potthast, Eric Sloane, Sanford Gifford, Ernest Lawson, Francis Coates Jones, J.G. Brown, Gilbert Stuart, Esatman Johnson, Ralph Blakelock, William Morris Hunt, and many others
Southern paintings featuring important Charleston Renaissance works including Alfred Hutty, Elizabeth Verner, Alice Smith, and Anna H. Taylor
A fine selection of early English slip decorated wares, Bellarmines, and other stoneware and earthenware
Southern silver including George W. Stewart Kentucky horse trophy, a North Carolina tray and pap boat, and more
Rare New England, New York, and Southern maps featuring 1808 Price-Strother North Carolina map and a 1755 John Mitchell North America map
New Hampshire rarities including important high chest in old surface
Native American including a Plains Painted War Shirt from an Aspen, Colorado Collection; early moccasins and pottery, northwest coast baskets, textiles, and more
Fine and rare Philadelphia Chippendale carved mahogany tassel back side chair
Important Philadelphia Chippendale dressing table, carving attributed to Martin Jugiez
American Folk Art featuring a dramatic ram form weathervane, decoys, painted boxes, folk portraits, figureheads, and stone carvings