The United States Constitution | An early and scarce book-form printing

The United States Constitution

"Result of the Deliberations of the Federal Convention, Convened at Philadelphia, in the Year 1787," in The Columbian Almanack and Ephemeris … For the Year of our Lord 1788: Being Bissextile, or Leap-Year, and the twelfth of American Independence. Calculated for the Meridian of the Middle States, particularly New-York. … By Andrew Beers. New-York: Printed by Samuel and John Loudon, No. 5, Water-street, (1787)

12mo (175 x 112 mm, uncut). Some browning, soiling, and marginal tears, title-page lightly creased and so printed, some transparent tape residue at foot of title-page. Stab-sewn.

On two gatherings ([A]⁴ B²; separately paginated) appended to the end of the almanac, the Loudons print the full text of the recently proposed Federal Constitution, preceded by presiding officer George Washington’s influential cover letter to Arthur St. Clair, the President of the Confederation Congress, urging ratification, and followed by a roster of the Signers of the Constitution and the two resolutions adopted by the Constitutional Convention recommending the procedures for ratification and for the establishment of government under the new charter. The printers advertised that "Purchasers can have the Almanack, with, or without, the Foederal Constitution annexed," making the Constitution issue particularly uncommon. We trace no copy at auction or in the trade since Goodspeed's offered a copy in 1946 in their catalogue 408.

REFERENCES:

Evans 20225; Drake 5947

PROVENANCE:

William Mey (?; eighteenth-century signature at head of final page)