304

Button Gwinnett: Signer and Debtor. A.L

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 400.00 USD
Button Gwinnett: Signer and Debtor. A.L
Button Gwinnett: Signer and Debtor. A.L.S. from M. Stevens, Charlestown, Apr. 1, 1773, 7 -1/2 x 8 -3/4 , inlaid on 11 x 14 sheet, requesting his correspondent (unnamed) "to use every means in your Power to recover - from B. Gwinnett, it being a Debt of Longstanding...He is in Duty bound to discharge it immediately. Having often asked him for the amt. when in this town - his answer was always that he would call before he was out of town - and as often forfeited his word...." Mention made of "forwarding necessarys to his island." Gwinnett had purchased the island of St. Catherine's several years previously, establishing a plantation there, bringing in slaves and hoping to make his fortune. This project became another of his unsuccessful ventures. A perspective on the rarest Signer of the Declaration of Independence, whose signature is virtually unobtainable. One can only speculate on the value of Gwinnett's autograph today; it is considered the most valuable of any figure in American history. Ink dark, paraph showing erosion under Stevens' signature. Fine and unusual.