Page 80 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript Americana - Sale 2310 - April 16, 2013

167 ● (LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.) Middleton, Elijah C.; lithographer. Untitled portrait
of Lincoln. Chromolithograph in “warranted oil colors,” 163/4 x 131/2 inches oval,
mounted on canvas and affixed to wooden stretcher as issued; minimal wear at edges, but
remarkably fresh and clean; faint ink lithographer’s stamp on verso. With original frame,
gilt on plaster, chipped. [Cincinnati, OH, 1864] [600/900]
The original image for this portrait was a photograph by Anthony Berger in Mathew Brady’s
Washington studio on 9 February 1864. You may recognize it from the five-dollar bill.
Middleton had a copy sent to the president, who offered this critique in a 30 December 1864
letter: “Your picture . . . is, in the main, very good. From a line across immediately above the
eye-brows, downward it appears to me perfect. Above such a line I think it is not so good—that
is, while it gives perhaps a better fore-head, it is not quite true to the original.” Lincoln also
suggested that Middleton should study a photograph, apparently not realizing that this was a
faithful rendition of one. See Holzer, Lincoln Image, page 136; Meserve 87; and the Collected
Works of Abraham Lincoln, page VIII:191.
168 ● (LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.) The Terrible Tragedy at Washington:
Assassination of President Lincoln. Illustrated broadsheet. 2 pages on one sheet, 111/4 x
73/4 inches; moderate wear, laid down on tissue on verso, inked “1866” on recto.
[Philadelphia, 1865] [300/400]
An advertising circular for a paperback issued shortly after the Lincoln assassination, illustrated
with a wood engraving of Booth’s deed. The verso (partly obscured by the tissue backing)
describes the German-language edition, with the same illustration. See Monaghan 768, 3787
for both editions of the actual book.
169 ● (LOUISIANA PURCHASE.) [Maclure, William]; compiler. To the People of
the United States. 8vo, original plain wrappers, moderate wear, with early manuscript
spine title “Claims on France”; early owners’ inscriptions on title page and page [5].
Philadelphia, 1807 [250/350]
The definitive compilation on the 1803 convention signed between the United States and
France, which settled the claims of American citizens against the French as a prerequisite to the
execution of the Louisiana Purchase. Sabin 97944. No other copies known at auction.
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