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This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2002 Mar 02 @ 09:00UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
(1732 - 1799) First President of the United States and commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. An fine and unusual Washington item, a handsome extra-illustrated volume, The Diary of Tobias Lear, with an Unpublished Account of the Death of George Washington: Mount Vernon 1799-1801, privately printed by American bookbinder and autograph collector Frank Cutter Deering of Saco, Maine, 1932. In addition to the famous account of Washington's death, this volume bears a large, handsome inlaid signature by Washington, and, on the cover, an original piece of fabric from the pall covering Washington's coffin at his funeral, Dec. 18, 1799. Lear, the private and military secretary to Washington, was witness to many significant events in early American history. The 31pp. large 8vo. volume comprises a typescript transcript of Lear's diary entries from Dec. 10, 1799 to July 4, 1801, and includes over ten pages of incredibly detailed testimony recounting his experience of Washington's death while at his bedside on Dec. 14, 1799. By this time Lear had ceased to act as Washington's secretary, but was at work at Mount Vernon on the former president's finances . He therefore found himself in the unique position to bear witness to one the most important moments in his country's history. Although his powerful narrative has been published in various forms subsequent to the creation of this early volume, it nonetheless likely remains one of the earliest presentations of the highly detailed and acclaimed account. The Tobias Lear Papers -- in which Lear's original manuscript about Washington's death is found -- were purchased by the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan in 1963. It is possible that Deering accessed the original manuscript some thirty years before its accession to the Clements Library, thus creating the present volume. In very small part: ""..[Washington] had taken cold (undoubtedly from being so much exposed the day before) and complained of a sore throat; he however went out in the afternoon into the ground between the House and the River to mark some trees which were to be cut down...In the evening...he say in the parlour...Between two & three o'clock on Saturday morning, he awoke Mrs. Washington and told me he was very unwell, and had had an ague. She observed he could scarcely speak and breather with difficulty...A mixture of Molopes, Vinegar & butter was prepared to try its effects in the throat; but he could not swallow a drop...Rowlins cam in soon after sun rise, and prepared to bleed him...Feeling no relief was obtained from bleeding, and that nothing would go down the throat, I proposed bathing it externally with salve-latila, which was done...He said to me 'I find I am going, my breath cannot last long. I believed from the first that the disorder would prove fatal. Do you arrange and record all my late military letters and papers, arrange my accounts and settle my books...While we were fixed in silent grief, Mrs. Washington...asked, with a firm & collected voice, Is he gone?...I could not speak; but held up my hand as a signal that he was no more. 'Tis well, said she in the same voice, All is over now, I shall soon follow him!..."". Followed by some twenty pages of Lear's account of Washington's funeral, making arrangements in regard to his estate, his political obligations, and much more. In addition to Lear's diary, the volume contains many engravings, several rare and early portraits of George and Martha Washington, along with scenes of Mount Vernon. Handsomely bound in bright red morocco, with the autograph inlaid on page 6. The cover bears the pall fragment under glass, with a gilt-engraved inscription reading: ""Presented by Sarah Curtis, Saco from Admiral Storer U.S.N. The above piece of fabric is a fragment of the pall covering the coffin of Gen. Geo. Washington at his funeral Dec. 18, 1799"". With marbleized accents and gilt accents, in near fine condition.
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