Sep 27, 2018 - Sale 2486

Sale 2486 - Lot 87

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
(PRINTS--1860 CAMPAIGN.) Sartain, Samuel, engraver; after Brown. Both states of Sartain's early campaign portrait. Pair of mezzotints, size and condition as noted. Philadelphia, 1860 and 1861

Additional Details

This portrait originated with an ambrotype photograph by Preston Butler on 13 August 1860, which was used as a reference for John Henry Brown's specially commissioned miniature portrait painted from life over the next two weeks, a portrait which Lincoln declared "without fault." Judge John Meredith Read of Pennsylvania then rushed the portrait out to Philadelphia for engraving as a campaign print. Sartain took at least three weeks to complete the job, and the portrait did not reach the campaign until mid-October, by which point the election was well in hand.
The first state has no title, only the facsimile signature "A. Lincoln"; it measures 10 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches. James Irwin of Philadelphia is given as the publisher. The second state adds a beard and the title "16th President of the United States," and measures 10 x 7 3/4 inches; Sartain is listed as the publisher as well as being the engraver. See Lincoln Image, pages 58-66.