[Phoenix Assurance Company of London]:

$1,250 · Offered by William Reese Company

NEW-YORK...THIS POLICY OF ASSURANCE...WITNESSETH THAT [blank] HA[blank] PAID THE SUM OF [blank] TO THE UNDERSIGNED THEOPHYLACT BACHE AND ANDREW BACHE, ESQRS. OF NEW-YORK, AS AUTHORIZED AGENTS TO THE ... 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.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 im

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