2005-03
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/28/2005
Original 1789 dated, business license to the first Jews to settle in and maintain business in Richmond, Virginia in the immediate years following the revolution…and with a direct link and association with the famed pioneer frontiersman DANIEL BOONE ! Printed and ink completed (4 x 8) with fancy, narrow border (blank reverse). Bold penned signature of issuing official: "These are to license and permit Cohen and Isaacs, retail merchants residing within the city of Richmond to retail Goods, Wares and Merchandize within the same for the term of one year…15'th day of June 1789." Normal, typical aging; exc. + condition. Both men have significant backgrounds: ISAIAH ISAACS arrived in Virginia as early as 1769; was a silversmith, believed to have been the FIRST Jew in Richmond. His partner JACOB I. COHEN came to Virginia during the American Revolution, having served in a company of volunteers organized in Charleston, South Carolina and saw action at the siege of Beaufort Island; captured by the British; escaped; settled in Richmond. Partnership formed about 1781, soon becoming one of the most prosperous merchants in the city; also speculating in real estate, records indicating that they owned a number of parcels in various counties and part ownership in the largest tract of land, over 12,000 acres in the "Great Dismal Swamp enterprise." They also owned the first inn and tavern in Richmond, the "Bird in Hand." Isaacs eventually entered the political arena despite the restrictions on Jews seeking civil and military office and eventually held offices of clerk and later tax assessor as well as member of the city council. IT IS KNOWN THAT COHEN AND ISAACS EMPLOYED DANIEL BOONE in Dec. 1781 to locate 10,000 acres for them in Kentucky. The actual receipt for that work, entirely in Daniel Boone's hand and with his full signature, dated Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve) 1781 exists in the manuscript division of the Library of Congress (and is illustrated in the work in the 1997 Virginia Historical Society book: "COMMONWEALTH AND COMMUNITY: The Jewish Experience in Virginia" (photostat accompany license). Interestingly enough, reverse side of a piece of correspondence that it still exists between Daniel Boone and Cohen and Isaacs is a receipt of a communication between the two of them in Yiddish ! (Mentioned in the work "RICHMOND'S JEWRY 1769-1976" by Berman 1979; photostats also accompany license. Other photostatic material from both previous mentioned works also accompany license... and this exact license of June, 1789 is also illustrated in both works and is also listed and described in catalog of an important exhibition "THE AMERICAN JEWISH EXPERIENCE" sponsored by the National Museum of American Jewish History in 1989 and is item 11 in that important catalog. (Photostats to purchaser.) Accompanied by four original, penned orders (varying sizes) for merchandise to ordered from Cohen & Isaacs including one by the famous EDMUND RANDOLPH, Aide-de-camp to Gen'l Washington; a framer of the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights; first Att'y Gen'l of Va.; elected to Continental Congress; Governor of Va.; Sec'y of State… and much more. In his hand with full signature dated April 30, 1787 addressed to "Messrs Cohen & Isaacs… be pleased to send by the bearer twenty-five pounds of single [?] and six yards of plain gauze and place it to[my account] …. also two original, manuscript merchandise orders with the original signatures of his wife, Elizabeth Randolph (one undated) seeking twenty-five yards of two shilling Osnaburgs and a pound of your finest thread" signed "Elizabeth Randolph for Edmund Randolph" and another dated Jan. 11,1786 "Send by bearer half a bushel of large allum salt, 12 pounds of single sugar and two pounds of salts I left the other day at the store and charge it [to my account]. Both also addressed "Messrs Cohen & Isaacs" and a fourth receipt "J. Ambler will be very much obliged if Mr. Isaacs will deliver the bearer two casks of Jamison's [?] 31 May 1788." These orders have some fading on a few but all very clear and easily read… together with the license they all represent American Judaica at its best (Edmund Randolph in 1779 was a member of the Continental Congress, later governor of Virginia, Secretary of State and played major role in both political history of Virginia and early America).American Judaica at its best with a superb historic association.
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