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

141 c   (PRINTS—MEMORIAL.)Wiest, D.T.; artist and engraver. In Memory of Abraham Lincoln, the Reward of the Just. Hand-colored lithograph, 30 x 24 inches; minimal foxing. 3-inch crease in upper corner, mount remnants on verso. Philadelphia:William Smith, circa 1865 [2,000/3,000] Wiest copied this composition from a popular 1801 print, “The Apotheosis of George Washington” by Barralet, making only two substantial changes: replacingWashington’s head with Lincoln’s, and changing the inscription on the tomb. Faith, Hope, and Charity welcome him into heaven. Other details might properly have been updated, but remained the same. Most notably, the shield in the lower left corner bears only the 15 stars of Washington’s time, rather than the 35 stars of the union which Lincoln had worked so hard to restore.The badges of the Society of Cincinnati and the Freemasons hanging from the tomb were also far more appropriate forWashington than for Lincoln.“Others may have wondered about the mourning Indian; a freed black man would have been far more appropriate”—Lincoln Image, pages 198-203.