George Washington's Book Sells for $10M

223-year-old volume includes Bill of Rights and Constitution
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 22, 2012 3:45 PM CDT
George Washington's Book Sells for $10M
George Washington's personal copy of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights sold for nearly $10 million.   (Getty Images)

A 223-year-old book once owned by George Washington has raked in nearly $10 million at auction. The 106-page leather-bound edition of The Acts of Congress was printed for the first president in 1789 and includes a copy of the Constitution and a draft of the Bill of Rights. Washington's handwritten notes can be spotted in the margins, and his signature and family crest are on the title page, reports Fox News.

The volume sold for $9,826,500 at Christie's to the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, the proprietors of Washington's estate in Virginia. "He clearly read it and annotated it to mark on his power," says the co-owner of a rare books company. "It's almost as though he used this book as a guide." (More George Washington stories.)

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