Benjamin Franklin | An unusual double Library Company membership document

Benjamin Franklin

Two autograph Library Company membership documents signed (“BFranklin”; “BFranklin Secy”), the two written on the recto and verso of a single slip of laid paper (191 x 152 mm) cut from a larger sheet, Philadelphia, 11 January 1748/49 and 12 January 1748/49, red wax seal by one signatory’s mark, fold separations reinforced, a few small holes touching a few letters. Brown cloth portfolio.

The earlier of the two documents, written and witnessed by Franklin on the recto, records that "In consideration of the Sum of Ten Pounds by me this Day received from Dr. Richard Farmer, [Esther Breintnal does] hereby assign to him the Share in the Philadelphia Library wch. belonged to my late husband Joseph Breintnal, witness my Hand & Seal." The document is initialed by the widow Breintnal, and is also witnessed by Thomas Shoemaker.

Joseph Breintnall, a Quaker merchant of Philadelphia, was one of Franklin’s intimate friends, and member of the Junto, and Franklin’s predecessor as secretary of the Library Company. Breintnall committed suicide in March 1745/46 by drowning himself in the Delaware River.

The succeeding document, written on the verso in Franklin's capacity as secretary of the Library Company, attests that "The Admission of Dr. Richard Farmer to be a Member of the Library Company of Philada.; is entered of Record pursuant to the Laws of the said Company, in Book A[,] Page 13." The physician’s surname was actually Farmar.

An unusual dual document linking Franklin to the Library Company of Philadelphia, on which “Franklin spent more time and care … than any other civic project. He founded it, attended its meetings faithfully as a director from 1731 to 1757, acted as the librarian in 1733 and 1734, served as the secretary from 1746 to 1757, became its book agent in London from 1757 to 1762, served again as a director from 1762 to 1764 and again as its London book agent from 1765 to 1775. No other project involved so much of his time and energy for so long, and no project pleased him more to write about in the Autobiography (Lemay, Life 2:93).

PROVENANCE

Marshall B. Coyne (Sotheby’s New York, 5 June 2001, lot 87)