Declaration of Independence Engraving by J.C. Buttre, 1856

Presented is an engraving of the Declaration of Independence, set within a decorative and pictorial oval border. The print was engraved and published by John Chester Buttre, in New York, in 1856. W. Momberger drew the border and C. Craske lettered the print. The Declaration’s text and signatures are engraved within an oval cartouche, surrounded by representations of the original 13 colonies within foliate swags. The composition is completed with an inset engraving of Independence Hall at top and flags flanking an image of the Second Continental Congress below. 

The Declaration of Independence is the foundational document of the United States and has been printed many times since its original publication in 1776.  First published as broadsides, then as an essential addition to any volume of laws, it is a basic work in the American canon. 

Following the War of 1812, Americans began to look back on the era of the founding of the country, for the first time with historical perspective. The republic was now forty years old and the generation of the American Revolution, including the signers of the Declaration, was looking for a way to record all it had accomplished and witnessed. With nostalgia and curiosity, many Americans began to examine the details of the nation’s founding. Documents like the debates of the Constitutional Convention, first laws of the United States, and the Declaration were published for the first time.  

It seems extraordinary that the Declaration of Independence, as created, was unknown to Americans, as the text is so central to the national ego. Yet besides traveling exhibits of the original document, many Americans had not seen or read the text. Several entrepreneurs set out to bridge this gap by printing broadsides of the document. The first to publish a Declaration broadside was a writing master named Benjamin Owen Tyler, who created a calligraphic version of the Declaration and published it in 1818, recreating exactly the signatures of the signers as they appeared on the original. Another early engraver to work on a Declaration project was Philadelphia newspaper publisher John Binns. As early as June 1816, “Binns began a list of subscriptions for his publication of ‘a splendid and correct copy of the Declaration of Independence, with facsimiles of all the signatures, the whole to be encircled with the arms of the thirteen States and of the United States.’” 

In the following years, many publishers took up the mantle, issuing their own versions of the Declaration. While some aimed to honor the design of the original document, others added extra ornamentation, like intricate allegorical and patriotic borders, inset illustrations of founding fathers and early American Presidents, important American cities or landmarks, state seals, and scenes of the nation’s technological or agricultural advancement since its founding. This example, engraved by John C. Butter and published in 1856, follows in that same tradition. 

John Chester Buttre (1821-1893) was a prominent American engraver and lithographer. He first studied drawing in his hometown of Auburn, New York, and moved to New York City in 1841. There, he produced some 3,000 engraved portraits of American political and military figures, many of which he published in a three-volume work entitled The American Portrait Gallery in 1880-81.

CONDITION:

Very good condition. Engraving, with wide margins. Paper with light and scattered foxing, more concentrated at the bottom. Offsetting from past storage and display in the top left corner. 

Engraving has been framed with an acid-free oval top mat, UV glass, and a custom-built gold beaded frame. Framed Dimensions: 26 3/8" H x 23 1/4" W x 1 3/8" D.

Accompanied by our company's letter of authenticity.