(CIVIL WAR CONFEDERATE) Unrecorded Jefferson Davis caricatu

Sale 2615 - Lot 71

Price Realized: $ 562

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) Unrecorded Jefferson Davis caricature carte-de-visite, "The Last Ditch." Albumen photograph, 2 x 3 1/2 inches, on original plain card mount; minimal wear. [San Francisco, CA?], circa May 1865

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Additional Details

A carte-de-visite of a caricature by popular French-American artist Edward Jump (circa 1831-1883), then a resident of San Francisco. It satirizes the famous episode of Jefferson Davis attempting to escape capture while wearing his wife's cloak. Here she ties his bonnet, saying "Hold still Jeffy, 'till I get you fixed. Don't get so nervous." While looking out at the pursuing Union troops, he replies "Yes, but it's the fix, wife, that I'm already in! That's what's the matter." In a second panel, Davis has been captured by laughing Union soldiers as he snarls "I didn't know that you would hunt down women." His wife protests in the background "I warn you not to provoke the President, he might hurt you." An African-American carriage driver proclaims "Golly, Mss' Davis, you's in th' last ditch this time." The original drawing was signed "EJump."

We trace no other examples of this caricature, either in the original, in print, or in photograph.