?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL WAR--NAVY.) French carte-de-visite collage depicting the USS Kearsarge and its crew. Albumen photograph, 3¾ x 2¼ inches, on original photographer's mount captioned "Mosaique du Kearsarge"; moderate toning and minor wear, period pencil inscription on verso, Cherbourg, France: François Sébastien Rondin, [1864]
The USS Kearsarge was deployed in 1862 for the European coast, on the hunt for Confederate commerce raiders. They caught up with the feared CSS Alabama off the coast of France on 19 June 1864, sinking it in the Battle of Cherbourg.
This photograph is a collage of 16 portraits of Kearsarge officers and seven other views of the ship. It is inscribed on verso with the name and address of Ezra Bartlett of Boston, who served as ensign on the Kearsarge during the battle.
The photographer François Sébastien Rondin was present in Cherbourg at the time of the battle, and apparently attempted to shoot the distant scene from a church tower, which would have been nearly unique in Civil War photography. However, all that has survived today was his drawing of the battle, which is reproduced in miniature at the top center of this carte-de-visite. Rondin also shot the ship's officers and other shipboard scenes, marketing the results to the ship's crew while they remained in Cherbourg. Ensign Bartlett at least was a buyer. One can imagine the locals would have also been interested in a commemoration of the battle. See Norman C. Delaney, "Monsieur Rondin's Fake Photo: A Scam that Failed," in Military Images 19:4 (January-February 1998), pages 30-32. No other examples have been traced at auction.
