?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) Series of pen and pencil sketches chronicling Desdemona Carter's attempts to get her husband Joe's Civil War pension. Six sepia ink sketches, each 5-1/4 x 3-1/4 inches, matted and framed in a 28 inch wide frame. Np [Washington?], 1870's to 1880's
These little pen and ink drawings were probably taken from a small sketch--book. They tell the story of Desdemona Carter, a black woman, together with her little daughter, "aged ten--goes to school," trying to get her husband Joe's pension. A one-armed Joe is pictured in uniform; with this caption "Was introduced to Genl. Forrest (Nathan Bedford) at Ft Pillow--so glad to see me, he shook my arm off." Other images are of "witness (a nun) for Desdemona Carter, wife of Joe;" another "Desdemona Carter, relief of Joe Carter, applied for pension." It's hard not to speculate about the authorship of this series; perhaps it was someone at the Veterans' office, or perhaps another soldier at applying for relief.
