(DOUGLASS FREDERICK) Sulfur Bitters the Great Blood Purifier

Sale 2105 - Lot 180

Price Realized: $ 2,880

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

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800

A RACIST PRINT OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS AND HIS SECOND WIFE (DOUGLASS, FREDERICK.) Sulfur Bitters, the Great Blood Purifier. Chromolithograph, approximately 6 1/4x8 3/4 inches. Racist image depicting Douglass, in fancy dress with a top hat and walking stick, and his new white bride, emerging from a pharmacy. In the store window are a number of boxes and a sign for "Sulfur Bitters, the Great Blood Purifier." Mrs. Douglass looks fondly at her husband; Douglass holds a box of the Bitters; in the background, a "Cheshire Cat" grins, in the foreground a dog growls. Framed. Np, circa 1884-85

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Douglass married his second wife, Helen Pitts in 1884. Contrary to Douglass's naïve belief that theirs would be a symbolic and welcome union of the two races, the public, including Pitt's father, a staunch abolitionist, were incensed. At first glance, this would seem to be a "trade card," but the not-so-subtle joke on the product, "Sulfur Bitters, the Great Blood Purifier," says it all.