Sale 2486, Part I - The Harold Holzer Collection of Lincolniana, September 27, 2018

56 c   (PHOTOGRAPHY.) [Hesler, Alexander.] The famous “Masters” portrait. Silver print, 9 1 / 2 x 7 1 / 2 inches, on original plain mount, in period frame and mat; mat adhesions at edges of photo, small scuff in lower right corner. Np, circa 1918 [500/750] This portrait was circulated in the early 20th century as a lost 1856 photograph of Lincoln by W.H. Masters of Princeton, IL. It is framed with a typed carbon letter on verso by A.D. Currier of Evanston, IL dated 20 March 1918, explaining the circumstances of the alleged original ambrotype. It would have been the second-earliest known photograph of Lincoln. However, it is clearly a retouched and reversed version of the famously tousled 1857 portrait by Alexander Hesler (Ostendorf O-2). See Ostendorf, page 258. 57 c   (PHOTOGRAPHY.) [Alschuler, Samuel G.; photographer.] Cabinet card of a very early Lincoln ambrotype. Albumen photograph, 5 1 / 2 x 4 inches, on original mount with caption in negative, copyright notice on recto, and A.R. Campbell backstamp on verso; very faint crease in lower left corner, early owners’ inked stamps scraped off from verso. Beatrice, NE, 1885 (from an 1858 original) [500/750] Alschuler’s 25 April 1858 ambrotype, taken in Urbana, IL, was just the fourth known photograph ever taken of Lincoln—and one of just 5 taken before the 16 June 1858 “House Divided” speech and Senate nomination which put him in the national spotlight. In it, Lincoln wears a velvet-collared coat which he borrowed from the photographer. The original ambrotype was purchased by Lincoln admirer W.H. Somers, who had it copyrighted and distributed in the present form. Ostendorf O-4 and pages 10-11. 56 57 PHOTOGRAPHY LOTS 56 - 83