They adopted a constitution, set in place a legislature and even appointed as governor a land speculator by the name of John Sevier. Congress turned down the application, but the would-be state of Franklin did find its way onto several maps at the time and the 1804 map by Franz Ludwig Güssefeld seen right is one such, although it wrongly sites the state that never was in what is now West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.
A good copy with wide margins and good original colour, the map sold for $1400 (£760) in a June 9 sale held by Old World Auctions of Sedona, Arizona.
