SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A 177-year-old first edition of the Book of Mormon found in a home near Palmyra, N.Y. — the birthplace of the Mormon religion — will be put up for bid this week at an upstate New York estate auction.
The rare book was discovered at the bottom of a box of books by workers cleaning out the house, said Mark Witmer, manager of the Hessney Auction Co. in Geneva, N.Y.
“When I picked it up, I froze. I used to own an antiquarian book store, so I knew what it was right away,” Witmer said Friday.
The book will be sold Wednesday during a combined estate auction at the company’s center in Geneva.
In March, Auction Galleries of New York City sold a first edition for $180,000 — $150,000 bid plus a 20 percent buyer’s premium. It was among the highest prices ever paid for documents associated with the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
That first edition was signed by early apostle Orson Pratt. An inscription by the book’s original owner, Denison Root, indicated the book was a gift from Joseph Smith’s brother, Hyrum Smith.
In 1997, Sotheby’s auction house sold a first edition for $32,200. In 2000, an unnamed buyer purchased a first edition at a West Virginia auction for $44,000.
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