FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706-1790). Document signed ("B Franklin Presidt.") as President of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 3 December 1785.

One page, 160 x 203mm (marginal tears at top margin do not affect text). Countersigned by John NICHOLSON. Mounted to a mat and framed with 3 contemporary engravings of Franklin (also mounted) [including:] Juste CHEVILLET, Engraver, after Joseph Duplessis, Benjamin Franklin Né Boston dans la nouvelle Angleterre, le 17 Janv. 1706. Paris, 1778. Copperplate engraving, 265 x 177mm (plate); [Louis Jacques CATHELIN, after Anne-Rosalie Filleul], Benjamin Franklin Né à Boston le 17 Janvier 1706. Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrum que Tryannis. [Paris: M. Bocquiet, n.d.]. 320 x 205mm (sheet, trimmed); [after Charles-Amédée-Philippe Vanloo. Francklin [sic]. Paris: Marie François Drohin, c. 1790]. 240 x 205mm (trimmed to plate).

Franklin approves a payment to the family of a deceased Revolutionary War veteran. The warrant, issued to “The Widow and Children of Moses Hamer late private of the 2nd Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line… the sum of Nineteen Shillings and ten pence being one year’s interest on his deprecation certificate…” The 2nd Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line served through much of the war including the Battles of Long Island, Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stony Point, Springfield and Yorktown.

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India House is bound by every tradition with the adventurers of all ages who went down to the sea in ships.

Christie’s is honored to sell the art collection of India House, a private club that has been a fixture of downtown Manhattan since the early twentieth century. The Club’s Renaissance style building was constructed by builder Richard Carman after the fire of 1835 and, previously housing Hanover Bank, Maitland and Company, the New York Cotton Exchange and W.R. Grace and Company, the edifice has remained essentially unchanged since its construction. Founded in 1914 by James A. Farrell and Willard Straight, India House was conceived as a meeting place for the interests for foreign trade and its name paid homage to the Dutch West India Company, the first colonizers of Manhattan. Farrell and Straight envisioned that “New York should have a place, maritime in spirit, purpose and atmosphere, where those interested in rebuilding a merchant marine worthy of American could meet.” In this vein, many leaders in foreign trade and worldwide commerce have since gathered at India House, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., James Byrnes, W. Averell Harriman, George C. Marshall, Henry Cabot Lodge and Cyrus Vance. Their meetings were held alongside India House’s world-class collection of maritime art and objects. First begun by Dorothy Whitney and Willard Straight, the art collection grew to encompass marine pictures, model ships, maritime relics and Chinese works of art, which gave the club its stately atmosphere and reminded members and guests of its purpose.

For more information, see A Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Collection to be Found at India House (New York, 1935).