Sep 24, 2020 - Sale 2546

Sale 2546 - Lot 188

Price Realized: $ 875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(PRESIDENTS--1844 CAMPAIGN.) Edward Weber; lithographer. Grand National Whig Prize Banner Badge. Lithograph, 20 x 14 inches, printed chine-collé on a printed heavy paper mount; minor foxing, minor dampstaining on mount edges. Baltimore, MD: John Gade, 1844

Additional Details

A special banner was promised to the state which sent the proportionally highest number of delegates to the Young Men's Whig National Convention in Baltimore in 1844. This representation of the prize banner features a portrait of Henry Clay, "supported by two seated female figures: Commerce (left), with two sailing ships on the sea behind her, and Ceres or Agriculture (right) holding a scythe and resting on a sheaf of wheat, with a spinning wheel, railroad bridge, and a mill--symbols of industry--in the background" (Reilly 1844-9). It is ornamented with bald eagles and the slogan "Henry Clay: Statesman yet friend of truth, of soul sincere, in action faithful and in honor clear." The painter of the original banner was William Curlett, who also shared the copyright with "maker" John Gade. It is also sometimes seen printed on silk (see Collins, Threads of History 172). The original banner was awarded to the delegates from Delaware; its location is unknown.