Unique 19th-century collection of state seals, comprising original impressions from 24 states. In 1840, the Boston lighting manufacturers Henry N. Hooper & Co. were commissioned to create a new chandelier for the Chamber of the House of Representatives. It was requested that the official seal of each state be featured in the design. Henry N. Hooper & Co. wrote to the Secretaries of State for each state requesting copies of their great seals for reference; a manuscript copy of this letter survives in the present book: "we are to introduce the shield of each state in the Union, to insure [sic] a correct representation, we take the liberty to ask you to send us by Mail an impress of the seal of your State." The present book contains the original replies from 24 states, with return letters and importantly the original seal impressions. By 1840, there were 26 states in the Union; missing from the book are Mississippi and the then newly-admitted Arkansas though their seals were present in the final product.

The chandelier was completed later that year at the cost of $4,200, approximately $150,000 today. Dramatically, on 18 December 1840 only a few months after its installation, a link in the chandelier's chain broke while it was being lowered for maintenance and the entire piece came crashing down. Several Representatives' desks were destroyed and the House had to vacate the Chamber for three days. The assistant House clerk, Benjamin Brown French, noted in this diary, "this is the second chandelier that has fallen [...] I prophecy it will be the last." Prints from the 1830s and 1850s depicting the House's interior record no chandeliers, and none exists there today perhaps precisely in response to this ill-fated history. See the article "A Fallen Chandelier in the House Chamber" from the US House of Representatives' Office of the Historian.

Quarto (225 x 207mm). Collection of ALSs featuring impressions of 24 state's seals, some with envelopes, two impressions on leather, one in wax, a copy of the initial letter sent to Secretaries of State at the front (most with usual folds, occasional tears, paste action, some impressions have lost definition but others remarkably distinct). 18th-century black morocco, gilt lettering on spine (rubbed along extremities, scratches on boards). Provenance: Henry N. Hooper & Co. (initial copy letter and states' return envelopes) – W.B. ?Luce (inscription on front flyleaf dated 1893).