Details:

Thomas Lynch, Jr. personally owned book from his library, Alexander Pope’s Selecta Poemata Italorum Qui Latine Scripserunt, Volume II, published in London. Printed by J. & P. Knapton, 1740. First edition, hardcover, measuring 7 x 4.5”, 252 pages, retaining its original binding. This remarkable eighteenth-century volume originated from the personal library of Thomas Lynch, Jr., one of the rarest signers of the Declaration of Independence. Lynch’s ownership inscription was originally present on the front free endpaper but was clipped away by descendants, a practice responsible for preserving many of his scarce signatures while leaving behind identifiable volumes from his library.

Good to very good condition. The boards exhibit expected edge rubbing with small losses to the front board covering, minor chipping to the spine, and the front board beginning to separate from the spine. Minor staining is present to the endpapers, with light bookworm damage affecting the final few leaves and rear endpapers. The front free endpaper has been clipped where Lynch’s ownership signature was originally located.

Thomas Lynch, Jr. (1749-1779) is widely regarded as the second rarest signer of the Declaration of Independence, surpassed only by Button Gwinnett in the rarity of surviving autographs. Because comparatively few authentic signatures remain, books and manuscripts from his personal library are of exceptional historical importance, particularly those whose provenance has been thoroughly documented.

The present volume comes from the personal collection of noted historian and Declaration signer authority Joseph E. Fields (1912-1999), whose decades of research established him as one of the foremost experts on the signatures and surviving material of the Declaration’s signers. Fields authored definitive biographical studies and signature censuses on the three rarest signers - Button Gwinnett, Thomas Lynch, Jr., and Arthur Middleton - and personally authenticated this volume as originating from Lynch’s library.

Accompanying the book are several important provenance documents, including Fields’s own reference copy of A Signer and His Signatures or The Library of Thomas Lynch, Jr., published in the Harvard Library Bulletin, Volume XIV, Number 2 (Spring 1960); a two-page typed letter signed by Mary-Jo Kline, then Head of the Books and Manuscripts Department at Sotheby’s, dated December 2, 1985, discussing the Lynch signature originally removed from this volume.

Fields specifically records this exact title in Section II of The Library of Thomas Lynch, Jr., listing it among books known to have belonged to Lynch but omitted from the original estate inventory: “Alexander Pope, ed., Selecta Poemata Italorum Qui Latine Scripserunt, 2 vols., London, 1740.” He explains that these additional volumes survived outside the documented estate inventory and were later identified through surviving ownership signatures and family provenance.

Fields further documented that he acquired this volume from Herman P. Hamilton, a direct descendant of Thomas Lynch, Jr., whose family inherited one of the largest surviving portions of Lynch’s library. In his research, Fields notes that the books had descended through Elizabeth Lynch Hamilton, one of Lynch’s sisters and heirs, and that many of the signatures were later clipped from the volumes by descendants, making intact library books with documented provenance especially significant today. He identifies Herman P. Hamilton as the great-great-grandnephew of Thomas Lynch, Jr. and records that these family-held volumes served as the source of many known Lynch autographs that later entered the collecting community.

The accompanying Sotheby’s correspondence provides further documentation concerning the removed ownership signature. In her 1985 letter, Mary-Jo Kline requested Fields’s opinion regarding the original “Lynch” signature associated with this volume, enclosing photocopies for examination and seeking his expertise before reaching a final determination. Fields concluded that the signature was authentic and that it had originally accompanied this book.

Thomas Lynch, Jr. was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776 and, at just twenty-seven years of age, became one of the youngest men to sign the Declaration of Independence. Failing health forced his retirement from public service shortly thereafter, and he disappeared at sea in 1779 while sailing to Europe with his wife, leaving behind one of the shortest and most tragic careers of any of the signers. Because of his early death and the destruction or dispersal of much of his personal estate, surviving artifacts directly connected to Lynch remain among the rarest associated with any signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Authentication:
Includes a full letter of authenticity from JG Autographs, Inc.

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Reference sku: 11677 1416959-1