Benjamin Franklin-Published Book
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GUEST:
This was my great-great- great-grandfather's hymnal book that was passed down through the generations. And I purchased it with a bunch of other books on my grandfather's estate sale when he passed away. Where was that? In Grantville, Pennsylvania.
APPRAISER:
Did you know anything about it when you bought it?
GUEST:
Nothing more than it was an old book, and then looking at the inside, the printer's name being Benjamin Franklin. We did more research on the book from there.
APPRAISER:
I see. Well, you're quite correct. It is published by Benjamin Franklin in 1732. And I understand that you've done some research on it. What do you know about the book?
GUEST:
It was a couple different works by a couple different authors. And what made it rare that the... there's actually two volumes printed together that aren't normally put together and bound in the same volume. A family friend was a curator at the Pennsylvania State Museum. He did some research for us also, and it turns out that there's only a couple other copies in existence of the book as they know at this point in time.
APPRAISER:
Right, so in the bibliographical literature, they've recorded as many of the copies at institutions that exist, and there's only apparently four other copies that have these two printings bound together, one from 1732 and one from 1736. Benjamin Franklin started his Philadelphia printing in 1728, and he began by printing ephemeral pieces, things like currency and receipts and so forth. But he started to take on jobs of larger book form production. This is one that he produced for the Ephrata community, a religious community in Pennsylvania, as a hymn book for their brethren. You have the 1732 printing of Vorspiel der Neuen-Welt, or Prelude to a New World, sort of inspiring the community to think about their afterlife. And then the second book, published in 1736, which he also printed for the community several years later. The interesting thing we've learned from his printing books is that he delivered the sheets to the community, and they had them bound. Because it was printed for a small community and wasn't for commercial nature, there are very, very few copies available.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Early Benjamin Franklin printings from Philadelphia are extraordinarily rare. The most famous, of course, is Poor Richard's Almanac, which he started printing in exactly the same year as this one. Do you remember how much you paid for the book?
GUEST:
Probably less than $40, $50.
APPRAISER:
Many of these copies were missing pages, or tears. The almanacs that we see are often damaged. This is in extraordinarily good condition, it's in the original binding. I could tell you that a copy of Poor Richard's Almanac from the same year, which is obviously his most celebrated publication, recently sold for over $500,000.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
We can't go quite there with this book since it's not the same situation, it's for a religious community. But I would conservatively put it at auction-- if it were to sell-- at $40,000 to $60,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my God.
APPRAISER:
If I were to have it insured for the family, if you wanted to keep it, probably at $100,000.
GUEST:
No kidding.
APPRAISER:
It's an incredible rarity. There are very few examples in the world. I really appreciate you bringing it in.
GUEST:
Thank you.
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