$1.5m Washington Letter to Franklin Leads Sotheby's Visions of America Auction Series

Sotheby’s' Visions of America auction series this month is led by its Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana sale which brings together autograph letters, manuscripts, and printed works tracing the American story from the Revolutionary era through the Civil War and into the 20th century.

Going under the hammer today with an estimate of $1m-$1.5m is a letter written in Philadelphia on December, 28, 1778 in which George Washington introduces the Marquis de Lafayette to Benjamin Franklin, then serving as the United States Minister to France. Composed as Lafayette prepared to return to Europe, the letter offers an account of the young general’s service to the American cause. Washington praises his conduct at Brandywine, his leadership in New Jersey and Rhode Island, and his escape from a combined British force, while also mentioning his “very particular friendship” for him.

The letter is offered from the collection of Jay T. Snider alongside another written by John Adams to James Warren concerning the congressional committee, which included Benjamin Franklin, appointed to meet with General George Washington to plan for the maintenance of the Continental Army in 1775. The letter was hand carried by Franklin from Philadelphia to Massachusetts  (est. $150,000-$250,000). Further works from this collection will appear in a dedicated single-owner sale in June.
 
Other highlights include:

• a first edition of the Ordinances of the Fifth Virginia Revolutionary Convention, printed at Williamsburg in May and June 1776 which contains the Virginia Declaration of Rights, an important forerunner to the Declaration of Independence, alongside the Virginia Constitution and the proceedings of the Fourth Virginia Revolutionary Convention, held between December 1775 and January 1776 (estimate: $350,000–$500,000)
• an association copy of the rare thick-paper first edition of The Federalist (1788), the first volume of which once owned by Bushrod Washington, lawyer, politician, and nephew of George Washington (estimate: $120,000–$150,000)
• United States Army officer Abner Doubleday's autograph witness to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg which includes 12 precise and detailed original maps (estimate: $200,000-$300,000)
• a pair of books from George Washington's field library, Major Robert Rogers’s Journals (1765) and Concise Account of North America (1765), both signed by Washington on the title-page, and gifted to his chief of artillery Henry Knox (estimate: $1.2m-$1.8m)
• a WWII Allied campaign archive (estimate: $150,000–$250,000) comprising maps, files, and documents chronicling the Allied campaign in Europe from the earliest planning for D-Day through the German surrender and compiled by the General Staff of the 21st Army Group