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

“A SOMEWHAT PLEASANTER EXPRESSION THAN I USUALLY HAVE” 86 c   (PRINTS—1860 CAMPAIGN.) [Grozelier, after Hicks and Hesler.] Hon. Abraham Lincoln. Lithograph, 25 1 / 2 x 21 inches, with facsimile signature; mat toning, moderate foxing, moderate edge wear, mount remnants on verso, “T. Hicks” penciled in lower left corner. Boston: J.H. Bufford’s, [1860] [5,000/7,500] A preliminary proof of an important campaign print. The artist Thomas Hicks (1823-1890) was the first to come west to paint the new Republican candidate in June 1860. Hicks also used a 3 June photograph by Alexander Hesler as a source for his portrait—possibly taken by the request of Hicks. The completed work was then brought to New York for lithography, and was widely acclaimed by Lincoln’s supporters for presenting the candidate in a flattering light. Lincoln is said to have joked to Hicks: “It will give the people of the East a correct idea how I look at home, and, in fact, how I look in my office. I think the picture has a somewhat pleasanter expression than I usually have, but that, perhaps, is not an objection” (Rice, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, page 602). The present example seems to be a first state of the more commonly distributed print. It has less line work in the margins, does not include the lithographer Leopold Grozelier’s signature on the stone at lower right of the bust, lacks the imprint line, and has a shorter title. Later examples read “Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Republican Candidate for the Presidency, 1860,” and give the publisher as W. Schaus of New York, although both versions credit Bufford of Boston as the printer. We have traced only two examples of this state, at the Library of Congress and the Library Company of Philadelphia. Lincoln Image, pages 43-50 (for the completed state).