(LINCOLN ABRAHAM) Pair of unusual cartes de visite on the Li

Sale 2517 - Lot 139

Price Realized: $ 562

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

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.) Pair of unusual cartes-de-visite on the Lincoln assassination. Albumen photographs, 2 x 3 1/4 inches, on original mounts; minor wear. Providence, RI, 1865

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Additional Details

The first image depicts John Wilkes Booth on horseback, encountering a ghostly Abraham Lincoln in the forest. The heads seem to be superimposed onto a previously existing engraving, though we cannot identify the source image. The photographer Francis Hacker of Providence, RI claimed copyright on the mount recto, and on verso is an advertisement for "Dr. Bicknell's Syrup, the Great Cholera Remedy" offered for sale by Edward Sutton of Providence.
The other image appears to be a photograph of Thomas Nast's center-fold engraving from the 29 April 1865 Harper's Weekly on the assassination, depicting a weeping Lady Liberty at Lincoln's tomb. The main change we can detect is the erasure of Nast's signature from the engraving. The Dr. Bicknell's Syrup backstamp is identical to the previous photograph. We suspect Francis Hacker was the photographer, though no credit is given. We can trace no other examples of either of these cartes-de-visite.