[Americana] [Franklin, Benjamin] Prince, Thomas, and Joseph Sewall, and Cotton Mather, and Ebenezer Pemberton.
A Sermon Delivered by Thomas Prince, M. A. on Wensday, October 1, 1718. At His Ordination, to the Pastoral Charge of the South Church in Boston, N. E. in Conjunction with the Reverend Mr. Joseph Sewall. Together with The Charge, by the Reverend Increase Mather, D. D. and a Copy of What was Said at Giving the Right Hand of Fellowship: By the Reverend Cotton Mather, D. D. To which is Added, A Discourse of the Validity of Ordination by the Hands of Presbyters, Previous to Mr. Sewall's on September 16, 1713. By the Late Reverend and Learned Mr. Ebenezer Pemberton, Pastor of the Same Church

Boston: Printed by J. Franklin for S. Gerrish, 1718. First edition. 8vo. (viii), 76; (iv), 15, (1) pp. Modern three-quarter blue levant over blue linen-covered boards, stamped in gilt, boards slightly bowed; edges untrimmed; scattered very small chipping and wear along text edges; a few bottom corners repaired; very minor scattered spotting to text. Campbell X1b; Dexter, Congregationalism 2743. Evans 1996; Holmes, Cotton Mather 332; Increase Mather 23; Sabin 65613; Stevens, Bibliotheca Americana 1795; Streeter II: 668

One of the first two books printed during a twelve-year-old Benjamin Franklin's apprenticeship at his brother's printing shop.

In 1717, a 20-year-old James Franklin (1697-1735), the printer of the present book, returned to the British Province of Massachusetts Bay after having spent several years in London learning the trade of printing. He brought back to Boston a printing press and printer's type, and opened his own shop on Queen Street. He found cheap labor in the form of his twelve-year-old brother, Benjamin, who began a nine-year term in 1718 with him, as a printer's apprentice. It was an arrangement that only lasted five years before Benjamin struck out for Philadelphia.

The present work is one of the first two books to carry the J. Franklin imprint, the other being a re-printing of Theophilus Dorrington's A Familiar Guide to the Right and Profitable Receiving of the Lord's Supper (1718). It has not been conclusively determined which of these two titles was published first, though the current work had to have been printed after November 10, 1718, as that is the date of Benjamin Colman's preface to Ebenezer Pemberton's "Discourse." As no definitive order is known, the present work must share with the Dorrington reprint the honor of being the first book publication during Benjamin Franklin's printing apprenticeship. It is then the first original, non-reprinted book to be published by James Franklin, with the help of his apprentice.

A 1946 Goodspeed auction record asserts it was young Benjamin who set the type. If so, it would have been he who set the exuberant woodcut printer's ornaments, head-pieces, and historiated initials seen in this example.

According to RBH, this is the first copy of this work to be offered at auction since the Laird U. Park, Jr. sale in 2000, and only the second copy since the Streeter sale in 1967.

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

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Darren Winston

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[email protected]267.414.1247

Darren Winston, Senior Vice President at Freeman’s, has served as Head of Department for Books & Manuscripts, Philadelphia, since 2018. He has been a trustee of the Rosenbach Museum and Library since 2022, is a member of The Manuscript Society, The Bibliographical Society of America, and Philadelphia’s Philobiblon Club.

Raised in northern New Jersey, Darren moved to New York City in 1988 and began his career there as a bookseller in 1995. He spent the next 18 years selling to private clients and at East Coast book fairs. In 2003 he moved with his young family to Sharon, Connecticut where, in 2009, he opened his own bookshop. Darren Winston, Bookseller offered rare and vintage books, prints, fine art, and more, and hosted over 50 book signings and art shows. He was a trustee and, later, Board President, of the Sharon Historical Society, and for six years a trustee of Indian Mountain School in Lakeville, Connecticut.

Darren has hosted the radio program "Darren Winston's Book Report" for NPR-affiliate WHDD since 2009, appeared in the 2014 book-themed documentary The Paper Trail, and in 2024 he joined Antiques Roadshow as a books and manuscripts appraiser. From 1999 to 2005, Darren was the buyer and consultant to the Fine and Rare Books Department at Asprey, the British luxury goods company, at its New York headquarters. While there he spearheaded various in-store events including readings by Salman Rushdie and Dominick Dunne.

In 1993, Darren was hired as a Creative Consultant to Columbia Records, where he assisted in the repackaging of their 12-record Aerosmith back catalogue. He later sold his extensive collection of Aerosmith memorabilia, which he began amassing at the age of 14, directly to the band.

Darren now lives on the Main Line, outside Philadelphia, with his wife, two children, and dog. The family travels frequently to his wife's native England and Scotland. When not bookselling, he plays guitar in Pumped, an Aerosmith tribute band. Darren also appears on the top-rated PBS television program Antiques Roadshow.

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This lot is located in Philadelphia.

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