$11,685
Washington, George (1732-1799) Printed Document on Parchment Signed, Order of the Cincinnati, c. 1797. Parchment sheet with a large engraved image and text, inducting Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn (1783-1851) into the Society of the Cincinnati, the date scratched out; the document signed by Knox and Washington at an unknown date presumably left blank and kept by the Society, subsequently presented to Dearborn in 1842, fulfilled in his hand, as indicated by a note on the verso; small in-manufacture hole in the parchment, central fold, edges curling slightly, surface toning, in a modern frame, mounted to show the entire surface of the parchment, 20 x 14 1/4 in. A signed note on the verso of the document in H.A.S. Dearborn's hand reads as follows, "I was admitted as a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, July 4, 1833 & this diploma was presented to me, July 4, 1842, which I filled up, as a valuable autograph of Washington." The Society of the Cincinnati came into being on 13 May 1783, organized by the officers of the Continental Army. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus was a Roman general who had walked away from his ancestral farm to fight for his country, only to return to labor, refusing any honors offered by the ancient Senate. "The members of the new society sought to emulate Cincinnatus in peace as in war." (Quoted from Major Edgar Erskine Hume's The Diplomas of the Society of the Cincinnati , New York: Quarterly Publication of the American Historical Read more…
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2016-10-30
