Description:

Thomas Jefferson
Washington, DC, February 17, 1809
Thomas Jefferson ALS to Grandson, Signed 4x Including Rare Full Signature!
ALS
An autograph letter signed four times by Thomas Jefferson during the last month of his presidency - with a very rare full signature included. 1p, measuring 7.75" x 9.625", Washington, D.C., dated February 17, 1809. Addressed to his grandson and signed four separate ways: "Jefferson" in addressing his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph; "Thomas Jefferson" within the text; "Th: Jefferson" at the conclusion of the letter; and "Thos. J." in the docketing on verso. In the letter, President Jefferson instructs his grandson to purchase a newspaper subscription on his behalf. At the conclusion of the letter is a note in an unknown hand reading: "Presented to Mrs. Boyd Gilbert Potts, by her friend, John E. Meeson." Accompanied by a COA from Alan Shawn Feinstein & Associates. With flattened folds and a few very small holes at the center folds which have been repaired with archival tape. Light toning and soiling throughout. Boldly signed.

In full:

"Dear Jefferson/ Will you be so good as to call at the office of Hope's Philadelphia price-current, enter me as a subscriber and pay 3. dollars, the year's subscription. the paper must be addressed to ‘Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, near Milton.' affectionately yours/ Th: Jefferson."

Thomas Jefferson Randolph (1792-1875), born at Monticello, was the eldest son of Thomas Mann Randolph and Martha Jefferson Randolph and the favorite grandson of President Thomas Jefferson. His education was closely monitored by his grandfather and included studies in botany, natural history, and anatomy. In 1809, Randolph and his family moved into Monticello after Thomas Jefferson's retirement, and he helped manage the estate.

A Jefferson expert has proposed that this letter may have been written by Jefferson using one of his greatest inventions, the polygraph. Letters written by Jefferson using polygraph are very, very scarce and we have only seen two or three on the market in the last 40+ years. The polygraph operated by attaching a second pen at a prescribed distance away from the pen that Jefferson wrote with himself, thus enabling him to make an identical copy of the letter on a separate sheet of paper. Letters written via polygraph are essentially written by Jefferson, because his hand movements made the exact same impressions on the extra sheet of paper. They are virtually indistinguishable from letters directly written by Jefferson and look exactly the same as if they were not done by this method. Several factors suggest that this is a letter Jefferson executed by polygraph: first, the presence of Jefferson's handwritten docket indicates that it was a filed letter; and second, Jefferson's file copy was written on an unusual sheet of paper with the lack of typical mailing folds. His copies were single sheets, not a bifolium which his letters were written on, and had a vertical center fold like this does.

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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  • Provenance: COA from Alan Shawn Feinstein & Associates
  • Dimensions: 7.75" x 9.625"
  • Medium: ALS

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January 29, 2025 10:00 AM EST
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University Archives

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