In late January I reported on an email solicitation sent to several libraries offering a Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence for sale. The firm responsible for the solicitation, Atam Sahmanian, Inc., has released a statement today clarifying the email and noting that the broadside was mistakenly identified as a Dunlap when it is in fact a copy of the 1825 Stone facsimile broadside.
The press release notes that the company "would like to acknowledge that between January 21 and January 25 of this year a sales associate contacted prospective collectors of a copy of the Declaration of Independence via e-mail and incorrectly identified the attached image as a Dunlap Broadside edition. The image attached to the e-mail was, in fact, a Stone copy which the company owns."
Director Michael Atadika adds "The incorrect representation of our Stone version was limited to this one set of e-mails sent out by our sales associate. This was clearly a substantive, though completely unintentional, error. The image attached to the e-mails in question was an actual photo of the Stone version that we possess. We believe the clear differences in appearance of the two versions would likely have been immediately recognized by the institutions contacted due to their familiarity with the subject matter.
As background, we began marketing our Stone version in anticipation of renewed interest in such a document during an election year. We wanted to present our clients with a truly rare buying opportunity. Atam Sahmanian, Inc. accepts full responsibility for incorrectly identifying the copy of The Declaration of Independence in its possession and regrets the undue alarm it caused certain recipients of its correspondence. The company's principals have formally apologized to those individuals who received the erroneous information. As further assurance of our integrity, the Stone copy has been submitted to the Smithsonian Institute for authoritative confirmation of its authenticity. Upon receipt, the Smithsonian report will be immediately communicated to all interested parties, including those recipients of the original e-mail.."
The full press release is here. I'm happy this has been straightened out.
