?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(CONSTITUTION.) Wadih B. NeJame. The Flag and the Constitution Combined, Dedicated to the American People. Print, 20 1/2 x 26 3/4 inches, in blue, red, and gray; 1-inch closed tear on left edge with cello tape repair, laid down on heavy period board. Np, 1929
The artist, Wadih Betros NeJame (1894-1973), was a naturalized 1911 immigrant from Syria. In 1922, he was selling oriental rugs in Poughkeepsie, NY. In the 1925 census, he was operating a delicatessen in Syracuse, NY; by 1930 he ran a frame and picture shop there. Shortly afterward he moved to Binghamton, NY, where he spent his remaining years. He was interviewed by the Pottsville Republican on 20 November 1929, explaining that many Americans do not "know the constitution of their county. I found the average American loyal to the flag, so the thought came to me to write the constitution in such a way as to form a picture of Old Glory." The original drawing took several months of penwork to complete in his distinctively Arabic-influenced hand, and was carefully planned so that the last words were evenly spaced across the flagstaff. He hoped to sell enough copies to fund a scholarship, and "for a statue in Washington depicting an immigrant saluting his adopted land." He still had a stock available in 1948, when some were given away in Binghamton, NY as part of a citizenship ceremony (Press & Sun-Bulletin, 2 September 1948). No other examples traced at auction or in OCLC of this remarkable testament to immigrant patriotism.
