Yahoo Lifestyle The Only Known Letter Signed by Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and John Adams Is Headed to Auction
History buffs best get their paddles ready.
A rare letter signed by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin has come to auction at Bonhams Skinner. The only known missive with all three signatures, it’s set to fetch up to $1 million when the hammer comes down on November 12.
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Dated September 22, 1784, the letter was sent to the envoy extraordinaire of the King of Two Sicilies (a kingdom in Southern Italy at the time), as the men were trying to achieve negotiations for a “Treaty of Amity and Commerce.” It shows some of the earliest efforts of the Continental Congress to set up a system of free trade with the international community. Mainly written by Jefferson, the letter includes edits from his initial draft, reflecting the input of Adams and Franklin. In the end, all three Founding Fathers added their name to the sign-off.
While the United States had gained independence with the Treaty of Paris, it wasn’t yet clear whether the new nation would succeed. Establishing a foreign policy based on free trade among countries was key to the American experiment. Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin were chosen as the negotiating committee for such treaties. (The three men were also some of the biggest contributors to the Declaration of Independence just a few years earlier.) The signed letter is the only one autographed by all three men that Bonhams Skinner was able to trace, whether at auction or in the trade.
Such documents related to American history can be big-ticket items when they hit the auction block or come up for sale. Two similar documents listed for thousands of dollars earlier this year: A Franklin letter about the American Revolution asked $120,000, while a copy of George Washington’s neutrality proclamation signed by Alexander Hamilton was valued at $58,000. More notable artifacts, meanwhile, can fetch totals in the millions. When a first-edition copy of the Constitution was offered by Sotheby’s, it carried an estimate of $20 million.
The letter that Bonhams is auctioning off may not reach that impressive total, but it’s a piece of U.S. history that collectors may never see anywhere else. That sort of legacy and rarity makes it a coveted item, one that will require quite a bit of safekeeping wherever it ends up.
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