Antiques Roadshow: 1830 first edition Book of Mormon worth $100K

Antiques Roadshow: 1830 first edition Book of Mormon worth $100K

(PBS)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

BOISE, Idaho — A man showed up at the taping of "Antiques Roadshow" to get a precious family heirloom appraised and was shocked to find out his first edition Book of Mormon was worth $100,000.

The book was printed in 1830 in Palmyra, N.Y. and given to the man's great-great-grandfather in 1833 in Massachusetts, said the man, who chose to remain anonymous. His great-great-grandfather brought it out west to Missouri, on to Salt Lake City and then to Oregon, where the current owner resides.

Ken Sanders, from Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City, appraised the book. He said that there are five early editions of the Book of Mormon that have special significance to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"The first edition of 1830 being the most important, but also the 1837 Kirtland, the 1840 Nauvoo, the 1841 Liverpool and the 1842 Nauvoo," Sanders said.

The man's great-great-grandfather signed and dated the book on Nov. 30, 1833. The book has had four owners since then, including the current owner and each owner has signed and dated the book on the day of new ownership. Sanders was impressed it had remained in the same family for so long with verifiable proof.

"It's really quite remarkable because in my almost four decades in the rare book business, this is the oldest copy, in the sense of being under continuous ownership, that I've ever come across before," Sanders said. "As an 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, I would value this at $75,000 at retail... With the family provenance and genealogy in it, and its unusual condition, for insurance purposes, I'd suggest the book has a value of around $100,000."

This wasn't the first piece of expensive Mormon history to appear on the show. The show came to Salt Lake City in June 2006 where a first edition of The Pearl of Great Price worth $50,000 was presented.

This episode of "Antiques Roadshow" appeared on PBS on Jan. 6, 2014. View the full segment below.

Related stories

Most recent Features stories

Tracie Snowder

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast