Books and Manuscripts: Rare Americana

Rare French Facsimile Printing of the Declaration of Independence

Paris: Kaeppelin & Cie, 15 Quai Voltaire, (1840). Engraved broadside. Engraved by F(rédéric). Lepelle. 32 x 25 in. (813 x 635 mm). Inscribed on verso by New York City art collector Henry C. Bush to his father-in-law, James White, dated April 14, 1903; creasing from when originally folded; minor wear in top corners; in frame, 38 x 30 3/4 in. (965 x 781 mm). Not in Bidwell

Rare French printing of the Declaration of Independence, based on the 1823 William J. Stone engraving. Produced for an 1840 French adaptation of Jared Sparks’s The Life of George Washington and The Writings of George Washington (Vie Correspondance et Ecrits de Washington publies d'apres l'edition americaine, Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin, 1840), and appeared as plate 22 (numbered in the plate at top right) in the atlas accompanying the multi-volume work.

Kaeppelin & Compagnie was active in Paris from the mid-1830s through the 1850s, although the Kaeppelin name was connected with the Paris printing trade throughout the century. The firm was at the forefront of French lithographic innovation, competing for prestige awards from the Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale, including one for the development of a lithographic transfer process. The engraver, Frédéric Lepelle de Bois-Gallais, was for many years associated with the Archives Nationales in Paris. A paleographer and calligrapher, Lepelle was particularly noted for his facsimiles of historical letters and manuscripts.

A lovely example of this rare engraving.