(CONGRESS) Eldwood CP; engraver Cudgeling as by Late Act in

Sale 2432 - Lot 145

Price Realized: $ 4,750

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

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(CONGRESS.) Eldwood, C.P.; engraver. Cudgeling as by Late Act in Congress, U.S.A. Engraving, 8 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches; folds, tightly trimmed, minor wear. (MRS) Np, 1798

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A caricature of a brawl between two congressmen at Congress Hall: Roger Griswold of Connecticut (bearing the cane) and Matthew Lyon of Vermont (depicted as a lion, with the tongs), as their colleagues offer sarcastic commentary and the speaker calls for order. According to rumor, Lyon had been court-martialed during the Revolution and ordered to wear a wooden sword; here Lyon quips "My sword is good, though made of wood." One of two depictions of the event, along with the better-known "Congressional Pugilists." None found in OCLC or known at auction, though Goodspeed's offered one in 1921. Murrell, A History of American Graphic Humor, I:42-44; Snyder, City of Independence, 177 (citing the only other known copy at the Essex Institute). Provenance: Walter R. Benjamin Autographs.