Feb 27, 2007 - Sale 2105

Sale 2105 - Lot 109

Price Realized: $ 4,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
A CHILD'S HAND-DRAWN VERSION OF "UNCLE TOM'S CABIN" (STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER.) Deck of 42 hand-made cards representing Uncle Tom's Cabin, drawn in pencil, pen and watercolor with inked captions; 3 1/4x2 inches, on card stock; some wear consistent with age to the tips, with a few slight creases. 15 are in watercolor, 11 childishly drawn in pencil, and 13 have either very faint pencil sketches or simply captions. The remaining 3 bear carefully written lists of the cards, of which (according to the lists) there should be 40 in total. On the back of one of the cards is the following: "This List of 'Uncle Tom Cards' belongs to whoever wants to use it. Made Jan. 11, 1862." On another: "The list of 'Uncle Tom Cards' was made by Edmund P. Platt, Jan. 11, 1862," and on yet a third: "From E. H. P. Platt to Alfred B. Scott. List of Uncle Tom Cards." All the cards on the original list are present except the "Topsy" card. Np, 1862
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Additional Details

A charmingly naïve representation of the Harriet Beecher Stowe anti-slavery classic, made by a child with the obvious assistance of an adult. The manner in which the captions are written hints at this being some sort of learning device, made more palatable by the involvement of the child. Though the cards were made ten years after the book's appearance, the Civil War was raging and perhaps this was a way to explain the violence to a small child. The number of cards that seem to have been captioned and partially sketched out, but not finished might suggest a child's limited attention span. We have tried to find the Platt family that might have been the source of these cards, but could only find an Edmund Platt born 1865 who later became a representative from the state of New York. One card is signed "Lulu Platt," possibly a little sister who took up where Edmund left off. Alfred B. Scott, the recipient of these cards, and whose dates would reflect the period in which these cards were made, might be the Alfred B. Scott behind the famous patent medicine "Scott's Emulsion," a cod-liver oil variant, and the bane of many a child.