Washington, George | Document signed (“Go: Washington”) as President of the Society of the Cincinnati, being a membership certificate for William Munson

Washington, George

Document signed (“Go: Washington”) as President of the Society of the Cincinnati, being a membership certificate for William Munson

Engraved broadside on vellum (approx. 355 x 510 mm), accomplished in a calligraphic clerical hand, Mount Vernon, 4 July 1786, conferring membership in the Society of the Cincinnati to William Munson, “Major in the Army of the United States of America,” signed by George Washington as President (“Go: Washington”), countersigned by Henry Knox as Secretary ("HKnox"), engraved allegorical vignettes by Auguste L. Belle after Jean-Jacques Andre LeVeau (from the design of Pierre L'Enfant) depicting America in knight’s armor trampling upon the British standard and the American eagle casting the British lion and Britannia out to sea with thunderbolts, the vignettes incorporating depictions of both sides of the medal of the Order of the Cincinnati within roundels; lightly rippled, laid down with two edges lifting from mat, engrossment slightly faded, repair to small hole at bottom center not affecting text or engravings, some toning. Matted, glazed, and framed (1398 x 805 mm) with an engraved portrait of Washington (355 x 300 mm); not examined out of frame.

A fine copy of a Society of the Cincinnati membership certificate, issued on the tenth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The Society of the Cincinnati was founded on 13 May 1783 by officers in the Continental Army who sought to establish fraternal relationships in the wake of the Revolutionary War: 

“To perpetuate therefore, as well the remembrance of this vast event, as the mutual friendships which have been formed under the pressure of common danger, and in many instances cemented by the blood of the parties, the Officers of the American Army do hereby, in the most solemn manner, associate, constitute, and combine themselves into one Society of Friends.” 

The organization was named after the fifth-century Roman statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a model of civic virtue and the defense of one’s homeland. Washington served as its first president.

William Munson of Connecticut marched as 1st Lieutenant with Elmore's Continental Regiment on 15 April 1776, as 1st Lieutenant for the 2d Canadian (Hazen’s) Regiment on 3 November 1776, and was promoted to Captain of the 2d Canadian from 9 January 1778 until June 1783 (Heitman, p. 407). Later, Washington appointed Munson as customs surveyor and inspector at the port of New Haven on 20 February 1793 (Journal of the Senate Executive, p. 130). He served in this position until his death in 1826.

REFERENCES

Heitman, Historical register of officers of the Continental Army during the war of the revolution, April 1775, to December, 1783; Journal of the Senate Executive of the United States, 1792-1793, Vol. 1

PROVENANCE

Christie’s New York, 18 June 2020, lot 96, $11,250