George Washington's personal gift to John Jay leads $12M Sotheby's Americana sale

NEW YORK, NY.- This December, Sotheby's will present the second installment of Reason and Revolution: Extraordinary Works from a Distinguished Private Collection, a dedicated single-owner auction devoted to the founding of the United States. Following the auction this month featuring landmark works of science on 20 October, part 2 in December is led by the copy of the first official printing of the Acts of Congress that George Washington presented to John Jay in December 1789, estimated at $8–12 million. Washington and Jay were, respectively, the first President of the United States and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the volume is the only one of five similarly bound copies to remain in private hands.

Collection Highlights:

George Washington and John Jay
Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America
New York: Francis Childs and John Swaine, Printers to the United States, 1789
Estimate: $8,000,000–12,000,000

On 9 December 1789, George Washington, the nation's first President, presented this volume to John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Jay inscribed the title page that same day: "9 Decr. 1789, Presented by the President of the United States to John Jay." He also wrote a note of thanks to Washington for the "elegant Edition of the Laws," which survives in the National Archives. That description suggests the handsome binding was part of the gift. The volume is bound in New York tree calf by Thomas Allen, with a gilt Greek-key border and a red morocco label on the front cover lettered "Chief Justice of the United States."

Washington commissioned similar Allen bindings for only a handful of copies of the Acts: those he gave to Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Richard Varick, and one for his own use. Those four are now at the Lilly Library at Indiana University, the Boston Athenaeum, Princeton University Library, and the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Jay's is the only one of the five to remain in private hands.

The book is also a landmark in its own right. The first official printed Acts of the United States Congress, it records the legislation of the First Congress, which met in New York in 1789 and put the new government into operation. It opens with a full printing of the Constitution, including the roster of its signers and Washington's cover letter urging ratification. On pages 92–93 is a very early printing of the twelve amendments proposed by Congress, ten of which became the Bill of Rights.

The volume has an exceptional provenance, passing from Jay to the celebrated collectors Estelle Doheny and Richard Manney, and has not appeared at auction in decades.

Additional Highlights:

The United States Constitution
The Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser
No. 2690 Philadelphia: Dunlap & Claypoole, 19 September 1787
Estimate: $600,000–800,000

The first publication of the Constitution of the United States printed two days after the Convention adjourned. The entire issue is devoted to the document, with no editorial comment, and the Preamble is set in large type across the width of the first page.

Washington's name appears three times on the last page, a visible endorsement from a man who took no public position during the ratification debate. Only about thirty copies of this issue have been located, mostly in libraries and historical societies.

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay
The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution
New York: J. and A. M'Lean, 1788
Estimate: $200,000–300,000

First edition of what has been called the most important commentary on the Constitution, from the library of Nicholas Gilman, a signer of the Constitution from New Hampshire, whose signature appears on both title pages. Gilman read the text closely: in Essay No. 8 he changed Hamilton's word "insulated" to "insular." One of the very few copies that can be conclusively linked to a signer, it also carries a connection to the lead lot, as John Jay was one of the three authors.