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Lot 31

MAGNA CARTA
By Permission of [...the named...] Trustees of the Cottonian Library. This Plate being a Correct Copy of King John's Great Charter... Engraved Facsimile of the 1215 Magna Carta, ENGRAVED BY JOHN PINE AND PRINTED ON VELLUM, Sold by J. Pine... and by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, [1733]

14 June 2017, 13:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £11,250 inc. premium

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MAGNA CARTA

By Permission of [...the named...] Trustees of the Cottonian Library. This Plate being a Correct Copy of King John's Great Charter... Engraved Facsimile of the 1215 Magna Carta, ENGRAVED BY JOHN PINE AND PRINTED ON VELLUM, engraved central panel of text surrounded by a series of 25 hand-coloured coats-of-arms of the Barons, hand-coloured representation of the remains of King John's Great Seal, all panels surrounded by hand-coloured oak leaf and acorn borders, FINE CLEAN CONDITION with good margins, platemark 695 x 480mm., overall sheet 775 x 545mm., Sold by J. Pine... and by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, [1733]

Footnotes

A FINE COPY OF THE FIRST PRINTING OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF MAGNA CARTA, the most celebrated legal document in the English-speaking world, "a sacred text, the nearest approach to an irrepealable "fundamental statute" that England has ever had" (Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law).

This attractive engraving was taken from one of the two original copies owned by Sir Robert Cotton, now in the British Museum. John Pine (1690-1756) was a publisher, print- and mapseller, as well as Bluemantle Pursuivant at the College of Arms, and Engraver to the King's signet and Stamp Office. It is thought that one of the motivations for publishing this facsimile in the present form was the fire on 23 October 1731 in which one of the two Cottonian originals was damaged.

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