On January 24, Sotheby’s held a single-lot auction of an early copy of the Declaration of Independence. Known as the Goodspeed’s-Sang-Streeter copy after its previous owners, it sold for $2.4 million, falling within its $2 – $4 million presale estimate. On the same day, Christie’s held an Important Americana auction where a different copy of the Declaration sold for $2.47 million. Experts have already noticed increasing interest in historical documents, and results like these prove it.
The Goodspeed’s-Sang-Streeter copy that sold at Sotheby’s is an extremely rare broadside printing, with only ten known copies in existence. This printing, called the Exeter broadside after its attribution to printer Robert Luist Fowle of Exeter, New Hampshire, dates to July 1776, making it one of the earliest copies printed for the public.
Christie's
The copy that sold at Christie’s is in the handwriting of Samuel Jones, a member of the New York Assembly who is credited with securing the state’s ratification of the Constitution and ensuring that it would include a bill of rights. It is believed to be from 1788, possibly for the New York Ratification Convention. Jones copied the text as it appears in the 1777 New York State Constitution, the only state constitution that contains the full text of the Declaration of Independence. Christie’s determined that it “is the only eighteenth-century manuscript of the Declaration of Independence known to be held privately.”
Christie's
In addition to its exceptional rarity, the Jones copy has a fascinating discovery story. It was found in a volume of Laws of New York purchased as part of an incomplete set at a library sale. According to Fine Books Magazine, the book was worth about $100.
Selby Kiffer, Sotheby’s Senior International Specialist, Books and Manuscripts, believes the “growing appreciation among collectors” for historical documents is “largely attributed to the entry of new buyers into the market—some transitioning from other collecting areas—who recognize these documents as undervalued treasures given their rarity and historical significance.”
This “growing appreciation” has been observed at several auction houses within the past year. Sotheby’s notably held an auction of Founding Documents of the United States in June 2024, where a copy of the Declaration of Independence sold for over $3 million and copies of the Constitution and Bill of Rights each sold for over $1 million. In October, a long-lost copy of the Constitution was sold at Brunk Auctions for $9 million, and a copy of the Articles of Association from the First Continental Congress was sold at Blanchard’s Auction Service for $360,000.
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