An eBay seller is offering a William Woodruff Declaration of Independence broadside
that has a whiff of controversy surrounding its production.
The seller describes the broadside as follows: a rare Broadside Printing of The Declaration of Independence, as engraved by William Woodruff, whose name appears at the bottom, published in 1819.
This broadside appeared just a few months before a very similar printing was offered by John Binns, who then accused Woodruff of stealing his design and filed a lawsuit against him. A war of words raged in the newspapers at the time, between Binns and Woodruff, over the two printings of the Declaration, creating advertising for their broadsides and generating an increased interest in the Declaration itself.
On Woodruff's broadside, the text of the Declaration appears inside a very ornate circular frame formed by a wreath and seals of the 13 original colonies, topped by portraits of the first three Presidents; Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, several flags, and an American Heraldic Eagle. The signatures are uniformly printed rather than being facsimiles of the actual signatures.
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