Sep 30, 2010 - Sale 2223

Sale 2223 - Lot 69

Price Realized: $ 1,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(CIVIL WAR--CONFEDERATE.) [Volck, Adalbert.] Confederate War Etchings. 29 etchings, various sizes, on heavier 15 x 11 1/2-inch mounts as issued, with printed contents leaf and interleaving sheets; minor foxing and toning on a few mounts, but generally very fresh and clean. Housed loose in original portfolio, cloth-backed boards with printed label, moderate wear. [Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, circa 1882]
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Additional Details

Adalbert J. Volck (1828-1912) was a German-American dentist in Baltimore with strong sympathies to the Confederate cause. In about 1863, he published a set of 30 anti-Union etchings under the pseudonym Blada. Distribution was likely limited to other sympathizers in the north, and few copies have survived--not surprising, considering the inflammatory content. His work became more widely known in the 1880s, when 29 of his original plates were acquired by a Philadelphia printer, and this set was issued in a limited edition of 100.
Volck's work includes sharply satirical depictions of Lincoln and the abolitionist cause, alternating with sentimental depictions of the heroic Confederate troops and their families. Several images depict the clashes in Baltimore, and another mocks German-American Union soldiers as "valiant" looters and terrorists. Volck finally took formal responsibility for these etchings in 1905 and expressed regret for ridiculing Lincoln, but remained supportive of Confederate veteran causes into the early 20th century.
Neely's Confederate Image states that "the edition was supposedly printed from the original Volck plates on fine paper, seamlessly affixed to heavier paper." Print 19 in this set is printed very slightly outside the margin and directly onto the mount, demonstrating that the paper was affixed before printing. Howes V138 ("aa"); Neely et al, Confederate Image, pages 51-54.
By an unusual coincidence, the only known portrait of Volck was by Baltimore artist John Roy Robertson (see lot 68, facing page).