Jun 27, 2024 - Sale 2675

Sale 2675 - Lot 45

Price Realized: $ 13,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1781.) French engraving of the surrender at Yorktown, "Reddition de l'Armée Angloises." Hand-colored engraving, 13¾ x 20¾ inches; vertical fold, light foxing, spot-mounted to decorative mat. Paris: Mondhare, circa 1781
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

This French view shows fortified Yorktown on the center horizon with columns of British troops stacking their arms and marching toward the left, flanked by rows of American troops (in the background) and French troops (in the foreground). The French Navy under Comte de Grasse fills the river to the right. The caption explains that the British under "Mylord Comte de Cornwallis" had surrendered to the Americans and French under "Generaux Washington et de Rochambeau," with the loss of 6,000 English and Hessian troops and their artillery. It concludes: "Ce jour à jamais memorables pour les Etas unis en ce qu'il assura definitivement leurs independances" (this day will forever be remembered by the United States as definitively ensuring their independence). Cresswell 326.

One other traced at auction since 1916 (not to be confused with the much smaller French book illustration with a similar title). Provenance: purchased by the consignor in Middleburg, VA in a frame bearing the 20th-century manuscript notation Long Meadow. The Long Meadow estate in Middletown, VA, about 30 miles west of Middleburg, was the boyhood home of Isaac Hite Jr. (1758-1836), who lost a finger at Yorktown while serving as aide-de-camp to General Muhlenberg.