[Presidential] Washington, George. Signed Society of the Cincinnati Membership Certificate

No date. Blank engraved Society of the Cincinnati membership certificate on vellum, signed by George Washington as President of the Society, and countersigned by Henry Knox as Secretary. With engraved allegorical vignettes by Auguste L. Belle after Jean-Jacques Andre LeVeau. Signatures very faded; scattered foxing; two holes in left side; unevenly trimmed along edges, touching plate mark at top; creasing from when folded, natural wrinkling. Approximately 15 x 22 1/4 in. (381 x 565 mm).

An unaccomplished Society of the Cincinnati membership certificate, signed by George Washington as the Society's President, and Henry Knox as its Secretary. The Society was established at the close of the American Revolution, in May 1783, as a fraternal and hereditary organization for the Revolution's Continental Army officers. Conceived by Knox, it is named after Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, a Roman Republic farmer turned military leader, who upon his victorious return from war, relinquished his power and retired from public life to return to his farm. His actions came to personify the civic virtues and selfless leadership that Washington himself would again and again embody throughout his life.

This lot is located in Philadelphia.