(circa 1855) Charles Magnus New York Declaration of Independence Engraving, with Full Text, Within an Ornate Oval Medallion Border with 13 Allegorical Colony Vignettes, and displays all 56 Signers' Names below, with Magnus Imprint, Extremely Fine.
This handsome Engraving measures 10.0" x 8.25" printed in black on clean fine quality wove period paper, and presents the full text of the Declaration within a magnificent ornate oval decorative border composed of Thirteen circular medallion vignettes, each containing a finely engraved allegorical or historical scene touching on the themes of American liberty, justice, agriculture, commerce, and national identity for each original American colony. The eagle surmount, shield, and allegorical figures for New York are rendered as are all, with considerable engraving skill and decorative ambition. The full text of the Declaration, headed "The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America," fills the central oval in dense period typography. Below the text field, all 56 signers of the Declaration are listed by name in small but fully legible type, arranged across several horizontal lines, from Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall through George Taylor and Samuel Chase. The publisher's imprint "Chs. Magnus 12th New York" appears at the lower center margin. A very patriot charged and visually impressive decorative printing of America's most important founding document, in the distinctive Magnus ornamental edition.
The DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and signed by 56 delegates representing the thirteen united colonies, is the foundational document of American nationhood, and the reproduction and distribution of its text in decorative printed form was a major commercial and patriotic enterprise throughout the nineteenth century.

The present example is one of the most distinctive and artistically elaborate of the mid-century popular editions, produced by CHARLES MAGNUS (1826-1900) of New York, one of the most prolific publishers of patriotic printed Americana of the Civil War era. Magnus was a prolific publisher of maps and prints before, during, and after the American Civil War, and in the 1850s much graphic material was published to keep the states together, evolving during the war into Northern propaganda and afterward into commemorative material as the nation approached its centennial in 1876.

Magnus issued this Declaration engraving across a span of approximately fifteen years, and examples served multiple commercial purposes, functioning as separately issued commemorative prints, as patriotic display pieces, and as decorative letterhead for stationery.