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Second night of the sale, devoted to minor items, was interrupted by the disposal of one major item of Americana which came, not from the Lothian library, but from that of George Charles Wentworth Fitzwilliam. of Milton, Peterborough, England. Addressed "to the KINGS most excellent majesty," this musty sheaf of papers has had a career so interesting that most U. S. collectors value it second only to the Declaration of Independence.* Written in a neat spidery hand which is almost certainly that of John Dickenson of Pennsylvania, it was the final petition to George III by the American Colonies to right their wrongs. Drawn up and signed by 46 members of the Second Continental Congress on July 8, 1775 (after Concord, Lexington, Bunker Hill), it had been confided to the care of Richard Penn who on Sept. 1 presented it to Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies. Lord Dartmouth presumably made an unsuccessful effort to show it to the King. He reported: "As his majesty did not receive it [the petition] on the throne, no answer will be given." What Edmund Burke later described as "a very decent and manly petition from the Congress" then found its way into the care of William, 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam, who scribbled on its back, "Petition of American Congress to the King" and let it rest at Milton Hall. There his great grandson found it last year. A duplicate of this "Olive Branch" petition, with three more signatures, lies in the London Public Record Office.
Last week's sale of the "Olive Branch," only signed copy in the U. S., set a new price record for a single item of Americana.† After spirited competition with A. Edward Newton. Charles Sessler of Philadelphia, and Alwin J. Scheuer of New York, who ran the price to $52,000, Gabriel Wells, Manhattan collector and dealer whose Americana is one of the most important in the U. S., bought it for $53,000. Said he: "That will go directly into my safe. You can depend on that."
On Location
Fat, grizzled, 72-year-old Childe Hassam is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the holder of innumerable prizes beginning with a medal from the 1892 Paris Exposition. He may not be the foremost painter in the U. S., but he is certainly the foremost painter of East Hampton, L. I., where he has a fine summer house and a solarium in which he last year offered to wrestle or box with disrespectful commentators. His wealth, position and appearance well qualified Painter Hassam to be the first subject of a series of short one or two reel cinemas, made and released by Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art, to preserve for history the technique, idiosyncrasies and recreational habits of leading U. S. artists.