The Green Box of Monsieur de Sartine, found at Mademoiselle du The’s Lodgings —From the French of the Hague edition, Revised and Corrected by those of Leipsic and Amsterdam.

“I hear Wasington ridiculed in Russian, and myself in all the jargon of Germany ... Make Europe civil to America, or I’ll follow Silas Deane. —FRANKLIN”

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With contemporary manuscript annotations on two pages. First English edition of this American Revolution era political satire and bibliographical hoax.

Anonymously written by Richard Tickell, the text purports to publish the letters of Benjamin Franklin (the “trading Ambassador”) with de Sartine, among others, and various secret state papers. The sum of it all exposes France’s motives for aiding America and satirizes Benjamin Franklin’s activities in Paris.

In the margins of p69, a brief indistinct sentence is scribbled. On p51, at the end of a “Franklin” letter, this is written in a contemporary hand:

“What was the Effect [strikethrough] Consequence of all this silly [indistinct word lined out] flattery to our Ministers? No-Body was concerned by it & our affairs went from bad to worse. Scarce was this Pamphlet out of the Press, when Spain took part in the War, & we lost [indistinct word] & Grenada, [British naval loss at the 1779 Battle of Grenada] the combined Keels off Plymouth.”

It seems unlikely that a reader, writing marginalia in the spur of the moment, would have struck out words and replaced them for their own private benefit. Of the subsequent revised editions that we examined, none printed the above commentary.

From the collection of Matt B. Jones who likely bought it from Goodspeed’s, “1239” penciled beneath his bookplate. Michael Walsh wrote that Jones “chose things with the finest judgment. They always had to be in good condition; they had to be significant. A Matt Jones book in an American institution today is a book to be proud of….”

Price: $850.00