Beschreibung:

WASHINGTON, GEORGE, President. UNITED STATES, First Congress, First Session. Acts passed at a Congress of the United States of America, : begun and held at the city of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, in the year M,DCC,LXXXIX. and of the independence of the United States, the thirteenth. Being the acts passed at the First Session of the First Congress of the United States, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia; which eleven states respectively ratified the Constitution of Government for the United States, proposed by the Federal Convention, held in Philadelphia, on the seventeenth of September, one thousand eight hundred and seven . New York: Printed by Francis Childs and John Swaine Printers to the United States, [1789].
WASHINGTON, GEORGE, President. UNITED STATES, First Congress, First Session. Acts passed at a Congress of the United States of America, : begun and held at the city of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, in the year M,DCC,LXXXIX. and of the independence of the United States, the thirteenth. Being the acts passed at the First Session of the First Congress of the United States, to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia; which eleven states respectively ratified the Constitution of Government for the United States, proposed by the Federal Convention, held in Philadelphia, on the seventeenth of September, one thousand eight hundred and seven . New York: Printed by Francis Childs and John Swaine Printers to the United States, [1789]. THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT: PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON'S PERSONAL COPY OF THE CONSTITUTION, THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND OTHER KEY ACTS OF THE FIRST CONGRESS IN 1789 IN A SUPERB CONTEMPORARY BINDING, WITH WASHINGTON'S ARMORIAL BOOKPLATE AND HIS BOLD SIGNATURE ("G O : WASHINGTON") WITH WASHINGTON'S AUTOGRAPH MARGINALIA, HIGHLIGHTING THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT Folio (305 x 190mm., 12 x 7½ in.). Collation: [A] B-C [D] E-Z 2 Aa 1 Bb-Dd 2 : 53 leaves. Various watermarks. (A number of quires evenly and lightly age-toned, due to varying paper stocks). BINDING: Contemporary polished tree calf, covers with thin Greek-key borders at edges; upper cover with rectangular green morocco label gilt-lettered PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; rounded spine gilt in six compartments with five raised bands; two compartments with red or green morocco gilt-lettered labels (LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES and FIRST SESSION 1789); the remaining four compartments with a gilt patera tool and four small hollow star tools; marbled endpapers, edges tinted pale yellow, BOUND BY THOMAS ALLEN OF NEW YORK (who bound identical copies for Thomas Jefferson and John Jay.) CONDITION: Very slight rubbing to corners, raised bands and spine extremities, surface abrasion in several places on covers, catching small bits of the Greek-key border, otherwise in fine condition. Blue morocco clamshell case. Washington's personal copy of the Constitution and proposed Bill of Rights does not carry Allen's printed binder's ticket. But the classical style of Thomas Allen's elegant binding is identical to that of copies owned by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Chief Justice John Jay, strongly suggesting that Washington himself had a direct hand in their design. All three bindings employ polished calf, use a distinct Greek-key roll at the cover edges and bear a gilt-lettered rectangular morocco panel on the upper covers. Little is known of Allen, whose binder's ticket reads: "Bound by Thomas Allen No. 16, Queen- Street, New York." When the first Congress was meeting in New York, Washington's presidential residence was a large home at Number 1 Cherry Street, on the corner of Queen Street (now Pearl Street); a short distance from Fraunces Tavern (at 54 Queen Street, where many governmental offices were housed) and Allen's shop and bindery. WASHINGTON'S ENGRAVED BOOKPLATE In addition to the large signature on the title page, Washington has pasted in to the front endpaper his engraved armorial bookplate, featuring the Washington family coat of arms ("Argent two bars Gules, in chief three mullets in fess of the second") a decorative escutcheon with Washington's name and the motto exitus acta probat ("the end justifies the deed"). This bookplate is no doubt one of a shipment ordered from England by Washington in December 1771, through his friend Robert Adam and the agent Robert Cary. The engraving was the work of a London engraver, S. Valliscure. He charged Washington 14 shillings for the plate and an additional six shillings for 300 prints from the plate, printed on good quality laid paper. Washington seems to have r