Partially printed Bank of Metropolis bank check, 6.5 x 2.5, filled out and signed by Adams, “J.Q. Adams” payable to Mrs. L. C. Adams for $200.00, June 9, 1837. Archivally cloth matted and framed by Gallery of History, with an engraved portrait of Adams, to an overall size of 13 x 18. In very good to fine condition, with cancellation cut to body, scattered light toning, red cancellation mark to body, and light show-through from endorsement along right edge.
The sixth president was now serving as a congressman from Massachusetts when he wrote this check to his wife, Louisa Catherine Adams. It was a tidy sum, particularly by 19th century standards, though the payment may have gone a long way toward soothing the former first lady—the only wife of a president to have been born outside the United States. Suffering bouts of depression, she was dismayed when she was forced to stay in Washington, D.C. following her husband’s election to the US Congress, and often regretted her decision to marry into the Adams family. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries partially printed checks were not yet commonly used, and checks of that era were usually entirely completed by hand, more closely resembling promissory notes. As such, partially printed examples of early presidents are significantly rarer than their manuscript counterparts. A president’s signed check is always desirable, with one payable to his wife all the more so. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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