Check out the first rare printing auction of the US Constitution – Entertainment

War Steve Gorman

(Reuters) – An auction house announced by Sotheby’s in mid-November that a very rare print version of the first official edition of the U.S. Constitution, approved by the country’s founding fathers at a conference in Philadelphia in 1787. Week. Friday.

Announcing the sale of the forthcoming document on the occasion of the 234th anniversary of the signing of the Constituent Assembly, Sotheby’s estimated its value to be between $ 15 million and $ 20 million.

It was last sold for $ 165,000 in 1988 by New York’s late entrepreneur and private collector of historical and signed documents and manuscripts. Acquired by Howard Goldman.

His wife Dorothy Tapper Goldman sells it, and the proceeds go to a trust created in his name to broaden public understanding of democracy, the auction house said.

11 copies of the first official print of the final text of the Constitution adopted in Philadelphia and submitted to the Continental Congress for review – and are still in private hands only.

Copies of this first record, which is unsigned and considered to be about 500, were also distributed to delegates to the Constituent Assembly. The remaining two copies are housed in the American Library of Congress.

The first impression of the constitution, according to Sotheby’s, is seldom considered more than the first appearance of the 1776 Declaration of Independence.

(By Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)

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