(ROOSEVELT THEODORE) Alexander Cable Lithographing Company

Sale 2533 - Lot 211

Price Realized: $ 1,875

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

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900

(ROOSEVELT, THEODORE.) Alexander & Cable Lithographing Company. Hands Across the Sea. Color print, 23 x 22 1/2 inches, on linen; light folds, a few mount remnants on bottom edge verso, minor wear and foxing along bottom edge. Toronto, ON: James Lydon, 1907

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

A colorful and curious Canadian celebration of trade and diplomacy between the United States and Great Britain. Its central image is of the brand-new record-breaking Cunard ocean liner, the RMS Lusitania, captioned "Hands Across the Sea." It is surrounded by images of King Edward VII of England and President Theodore Roosevelt, a beaver (a national symbol of Canada), seated figures representing Britannia and Liberty, and the British lion and American eagle nestled cozily together at bottom. The bottom border bears an emblem of Toronto Lodge No. 11, presumably the Masonic lodge which commissioned this work. The copyright was registered on 30 December 1907 by James Lydon as treasurer of the Theatrical Mechanical Association; it was registered as a "cushion top" in the "Industrial Design" section of the December 1907 Canadian Patent Office Record and Register. "Hands Across the Sea" was the title of a popular John Philip Souza composition from 1899, and the phrase became a popular shorthand for American diplomatic efforts in the years which followed.
Events of the following decade lent this textile some added resonance. The Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915, one of the precipitating events of World War One. Roosevelt, by this point long out of office, was vocal in his criticism of President Woodrow Wilson, arguing that the attack was a sufficient cause for American entry into the war. None in OCLC, and only one traced at auction.