An authentic copy of Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanacsold at auction at Sotheby's for $556,500, which is the second highest price ever paid for a book printed in America (the highest price was for a copy of George Washington's copy of The Federalist Papers which went for $1.4 million). The 1773 volume was found by the members of the Berwick Historical Society in the archives. They had no idea it would turn out to be so valuable.
That was big news in Berwick, an old manufacturing city of 10,000 residents about 150 kilometres northwest of Philadelphia, where Franklin, using the pseudonym Richard Saunders, printed thousands of copies of his almanac between 1733 and 1760, dispensing advice and aphorisms along with "lunations, eclipses, judgment of the weather" and other data relevant to the 40-degree latitude "from Newfoundland to South Carolina."
The celebration for historical society members began on the trip back home from New York.
"We're on the second bottle of champagne," historical society president Thomas McLaughlin said when reached on his cellphone aboard the bus taking 14 society members back to Berwick.
McLaughlin said that when the society inquired of experts about the almanac's value, the first estimate was $7,000 to $10,000, but it rose sharply after the Library Company of Philadelphia, which Franklin founded, determined the book not only was real but also was one of only three 1733 copies known to exist.
The experts said it was authentic based on the original binding, the ink and the printing, but even then the presale estimate was only $100,000 to $150,000.
Selby Kiffer, an authority on historical American documents who examined the almanac for Sotheby's, said it "had that right look."
"It's like finding a fossil in its matrix," Kiffer said. "It's a cliche to say something is once in a lifetime until you have an opportunity like this."
The purchaser chose to remain anonymous, so it is most likely in the hands of a private collector now. The money has gone into the endowment fund of the historical society, which is planning on renovating the town's 1860s-era city hall and for the purchase of a World War II Stuart light tank, many of which were made locally.
