Founding Documents of the United States of America Come to Sotheby’s

On July 28^th, 1789, several members of the House of Representatives created an initial draft of amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America. By August 24^th of that year, a document was created as “Articles in addition to, and amendment of, the Constitution of the United States of America,” for consideration and discussion by members of Congress. The committee only printed 100 copies of this landmark set of amendments— now known as the Bill of Rights— and no copies have ever appeared at auction. Other known copies reside at the Library of Congress and the National Archives. One copy from the first printing of the Bill of Rights is currently up for bid in part one of Sotheby’s Making Our Nation auction, which will benefit the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation.

There are over 70 early American founding documents in the auction. Among the top lots is the first book-form printing of the Declaration of Independence, the earliest surviving printing of the Constitution in Virginia, and the first printing of The Monroe Doctrine. For more information and to bid on any of these lots, visit Sotheby’s.