An extraordinarily rare Mediterranean Ship`s Passport signed during his one-month presidency - photo 1

An extraordinarily rare Mediterranean Ship`s Passport signed during his one-month presidency

Lot 663
24.01.2025 10:00UTC -05:00
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$ 60 480
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 1362256
Lot 663 | An extraordinarily rare Mediterranean Ship's Passport signed during his one-month presidency
Estimate value
$ 40 000 – 60 000
An extraordinarily rare Mediterranean Ship's Passport signed during his one-month presidency
William Henry Harrison, c. March-April 1841.
HARRISON, William Henry (1773-1841). Document signed ("W. H. Harrison") as President, countersigned by Daniel WEBSTER (1782-1852), [Washington, March-April, 1841].

One page on vellum, 380 x 264mm with scallop top and engraved calligraphic text ("By the President of the United States of America," at top, two large vignettes of a three-masted sailing ship under full sail, and beneath, a scene of a lighthouse off the quay of a steepled city, with intact paper seal (faint dustsoiling, typical creases else quite clean).

An extraordinarily rare Mediterranean Ship's Passport signed during his one-month presidency—the only example of its kind ever seen at auction according to RBH. On the day of his inauguration—a chilly, windy March day—the 68-year-old President delivered an inaugural address which lasted for an hour and forty minutes. Later drenched in a cold rain, he came down with a severe cold which grew steadily worse in the course of the next month. His doctors diagnosed his condition as "bilious pleurisy," and by early April he was clearly declining. He died on the fourth, exactly a month after assuming office. As this document attests, ship's passports, like military commissions and postmaster appointments, were signed in blank by the President, sent to the respective departments for the appropriate secretary's signature (in this case, the Department of State), and then distributed to the offices of each port collector, who, in turn, engrossed them for specific ships sailing to foreign ports. This style of passport was devised following the Treaty of Algiers in 1795.

Extremely rare in this format. While four-language ship's passports signed by Harrison are rare, they still appear at auction every few years. However, this is the first example of a Mediterranean style passport signed by Harrison ever to appear at auction.
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