Phénix

1804 · WRCAM37730 — London 1804. Bifolium consisting of one unaccomplished broadside form and one broadside advertisement 19 1/2 x 12 inches. Copper- engraved scene 5 3/4 x 7 inches at head of form. Woodcut emblem 3 x 4 1/2 inches at head of advertisement. Two vertical and three horizontal folds. Contemporary manuscript inscription "June 1804" in left margin beside engraving in first leaf; contemporary manuscript inscriptions dated November 8 1804 on blank verso of first leaf referring to policy rates in Charleston. Half-inch tear at gutter of first leaf repaired with tape on verso. Portion of upper corner at fore-edge and portion of margin at gutter lacking from second leaf supplied in later paper. Second leaf somewhat faded. Else near fine. Bifolium of two broadsides for the Phoenix fire insurance company of London at the time of the opening of its first agency in New York. The Phoenix Assurance Company still operating today as Phoenix Life Ltd. was founded in 1782 by a consortium of sugar refiners in London seeking more reasonable rates for the insurance of their risky holdings against fire. By the mid-1780s Phoenix had established itself as a successful fire insurer across the whole of Great Britain for a wide array of businesses and homes. In 1785 the Phoenix Company sold its first North American policy at Charleston and the first policy in New York was accepted two years later. It was not until 1804 however that Phoenix began establishing actual agencies in the New World breaking ground in New York with the appointment of Theophylact and Andrew Bache as agents there. <br> <br> The first leaf is a printed policy form for the Phoenix Company in New York never filled in. The second leaf is an advertising broadside for the company containing a table of rates for New York subscribers and a detailed list of conditions for new policies. The handsome copper engraving at the top of the form leaf depicts a helmeted goddess presumably Athena on a pedestal bearing a shield stamped with the word "PROTECTION" and the image of a phoenix rising from ashes. Behind the figure is a nighttime scene of the burning remains of a building and a family of victims spilling onto the street. A team of firefighters is extinguishing the flames with a pump-operated hose and behind them is a scaffolded building under repair. The engraved caption reads: "PHOENIX FIRE OFFICE LOMBARD STREET and CHARING CROSS." A similar illustration in woodcut is included at the head of the "Proposals" broadside. Here the goddess is the only figure depicted. On her left are both the burning building and the new construction; on her right is a ship at sea engulfed in flames. The hooks and axes of the firefighter adorn the sides of the cut. <br> <br> The Goldsmiths'-Kress Library of Economic Literature at Harvard lists a copy of the Boston variant of the advertising broadside. The only located institutional holding of this New York issue however is at the Connecticut Historical Society. No records of the printed form in any issue have been located. A rare and interesting pair of documents from the early history of international insurance. KRESS B4839 variant. Clive Trebilcock PHOENIX ASSURANCE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH INSURANCE VOLUME I 1782-1870 Cambridge University Press 1985 pp.184-201. unknown books