William J. Stone for Peter Force, "The Declaration of Independence". Single oversized sheet, copperplate engraving on rice paper. Paper: 29.5"H x 24.75"W; Frame: 42.5"H x 39"W. Originally folded and placed in Volume I of Peter Force's 1837-1853 series of books, American Archives. PROVENANCE: From the Collection of Sam Wyly, Dallas, Texas. NOTE: United States Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned William J. Stone of Washington to engrave an exact copy of the original Declaration of Independence onto copperplate in 1820. The undertaking took three years. Stone used a Wet-Ink transfer process to create a copperplate from which facsimile copies could then be made. By wetting the original document, some of the original ink was transferred to the copperplate, which was then engraved and used for printing. There were 201 official parchment copies printed from the Stone copperplate. In 1833, historian and printer Peter Force was contracted by the Department of State to compile the "American Archives, a Documentary History of the English Colonies in North America." It was to include legislative records, official documents, and historic private correspondence. Six volumes were published between 1837 and 1846 and an additional three more volumes between 1846 and 1853. The completed volumes covered the years 1774 to 1776. Bound into in the first volume was a paper copy of the William J. Stone Declaration of Independence. The original copperplate created by William J. Stone was retrieved from storage and Force printed copies on rice paper. In the lower left of each copy, Force printed: "W. J. STONE SC. WASHN." These copies were then folded and inserted into the American Archives collection. Congress authorized up to 1500 copies of the series to be produced, but advanced subscriptions fell far short of that number and the actual number of copies printed was far smaller, with estimates ranging from between 500 and 1,000. Today, there are only a few hundred of Peter Force's printing of the Declaration of Independence known to exist.