Description:

Fillmore Millard

Millard Fillmore Raves about Recent Invention: "I have now used your new device or 'eraser' long enough to be satisfied"

 

1p ALS inscribed overall and signed by 13th U.S. President Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) as "Millard Fillmore" at center right. Written in Buffalo, New York on February 8, 1860. On cream, blue-lined stationery with an embossed shield in the upper left corner. Hinged at left on cream stock card. Expected wear including light paper folds and isolated foxing, else near fine. 4.875" x 7.5".

 

In full:

 

"Buffalo. Feby. 8th. 1860.

 

Mr. A.G. Shaver,

 

Sir,

 

I have now used your new device or 'eraser' long enough to be satisfied that it is the best thing of the kind which has fallen under my observation, and I return you my sincere thanks for the one sent to me.

 

Respectfully yours

Millard Fillmore."

 

Fillmore's correspondent was Archibald G. Shaver (1830-1866). An itinerant drawing teacher, Shaver had recently invented and patented an ingenious tool that became known as "Shaver's Patent Eraser and Burnisher, Pencil Sharpener, &c." Shaver's combination drawing/writing tool was granted U.S. Patent No. 23,196 on March 8, 1859. Shaver's utensil was shaped like a scalpel and attached to a wooden handle. While a curved metal blade erased marks on paper, the rounded part of the same blade pressed down raised paper fibers. (See photocopies of the original patent filings for more information.) Shaver likely sent an example of this version of the patented device to Filmore.

 

Shaver did not live long enough to see the profits of his antebellum invention. He volunteered as an orderly during the Civil War, working closely with Clara Barton and other nurses to evacuate wounded Union soldiers from the battlefields. While on duty, Shaver was wounded and later had his leg amputated; he died shortly after the procedure.

 

Millard Fillmore, the entirely self-educated son of impoverished tenant farmers from western New York, greatly appreciated anything pertaining to the cultivation of knowledge or its practice. He was delighted with Shaver's invention.

 

Fillmore’s most enduring political legacy was his endorsement of the Compromise of 1850. This agreement, launched in a series of five bills by Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas, addressed issues of slavery and territorial expansion. Although the Compromise was hoped to resolve sectional conflicts over slavery, it would only delay the onset of the Civil War by a decade.

 

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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