1790 Appointment for 1st Supreme Court
GUEST:
It is a family piece that has been in our family for as long as I can remember. It came to my parents through my grandparents. The document is James Iredell's appointment to the first Supreme Court under George Washington, and we are all direct descendants from the judge. And we were fortunate enough to get it because my mother is related-- on the backside, you'll see, to John Rutledge, who was also on the first court, and he gave the oath. And since both my parents had a family connection, when it came time to decide who was going to get it, my parents were the lucky... They won.
APPRAISER:
They won.
GUEST:
I have an appraisal from 1979.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
And I think at that point, it was $9,500.
APPRAISER:
We see a lot of George Washington documents.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And they generally follow a certain look-- neatly written, his signature, the presidential seal.
GUEST:
Seal, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
So we know this thing is, is right. The president had to approve every appointment.
GUEST:
Correct.
APPRAISER:
So some of these are routine positions, postmasters, things like that. But in this case, George Washington was in that remarkable position of being the only president who ever had to select the entire cast of the Supreme Court.
GUEST:
Hadn't thought about it that way.
APPRAISER:
So, I mean, that is amazing when you think about it.
GUEST:
Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER:
That makes this thing so out of league with all of the things that we typically see. But what you mentioned on the back, what you referred to, and I'll show you, it's a docket we call-- that, or it's a memorandum-- it's put on the back sometimes.
GUEST:
John Rutledge gave the oath to James Iredell. John Rutledge was also on the court with Judge Iredell. And John Rutledge is my mother's side of the family, and Justice Iredell is my father's side of the family. (chuckles) So 200 years later, who'd have known that?
APPRAISER:
It's amazing, It's amazing.
GUEST:
It ends up in the...
APPRAISER:
You're connected either way, You seem destined to have it.
GUEST:
Correct.
APPRAISER:
We're looking at a, a major appointment by... to a major position by Washington, and you're talking about two of the very first Supreme Court justice... associate justices. So, it's... it's just an amazing thing. So I, I would comfortably say an auction estimate would be something like $40,000 to $60,000, comfortably, at auction. Now, you'd want to be fully insured on that,
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
so you're going to be talking about $80,000 to $90,000 would be like an insurance value.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
It literally is irreplaceable.
GUEST:
That's happy news.
APPRAISER:
Good, I'm glad about that. We like happy news.
GUEST:
(chuckling): That's good. We do, very happy news.
Appraisal Details
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