Description:

J.Q. Adams PSA NM-MT 8 3rd Person ANS Re: "a pair of Bay Coach Horses" Bought 6 Weeks After Becoming Sec. of State

A paper slip inscribed and signed in the third person by John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), then U.S. Secretary of State and future 6th U.S. President, as "John Quincy Adams" on the first line of the paragraph. November 5, 1817. Washington, D.C. Encapsulated and PSA/DNA graded NM-MT 8. Countersigned by Adams's steward Antoine Michel Giusta as a witness; and by the horse dealer B.R. Jenkins. Adams has meticulously docketed the signed receipt verso. Expected wear including flattened folds, isolated ink bleed-through, and scattered pencil inscriptions by a former collector, else near fine. The paper slip measures 8" x 4.875" while the slab measures 10.125" x 6.625."

John Quincy Adams wrote in part: "Washington 5. November 1817. Received of John Quincy Adams, the sum of four hundred dollars, for a pair of Bay Coach Horses, one four and the other five years old, which I warrant to be sound wind and limb, and without fault."

John Quincy Adams had just returned to the United States from Europe in August 1817 after serving a 2-year-long term as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain. He had been appointed James Monroe's U.S. Secretary of State in late September 1817. The horses he purchased would serve not only as a mode of transportation, but also as an important status symbol in his new role as Secretary of State. They probably made quite a handsome pair, being described as bay, or reddish-brown, and "sound [in] wind and limb," a horse term meaning overall health, from lungs to muscles.

Antoine Michel Giusta, the witness, first served as John Quincy Adams's valet and then as White House Chief Steward. Adams had met Giusta, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, in Belgium in June 1814 when Adams served as one of five U.S. delegates negotiating the Treaty of Ghent to end the War of 1812. Giusta later married First Lady Louisa Adams's lady's maid and the couple managed the White House household.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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