Feb 04, 2016 - Sale 2404

Sale 2404 - Lot 280

Price Realized: $ 2,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(WAR OF 1812.) The Retreat of the English from New-Orleans / Grand Battle of N. Orleans / United We Stand / Battle of Pattsburg [sic] and Victory on Lake Champlain. Letterpress broadside, 25 x 20 inches, illustrated with 36 wood engravings; minor foxing, composite copy, beautifully restored, with 2004 dealer description reading "nicely reconstructed by Green Dragon Bindery out of a number of small pieces, and complete," with a 10 x 1 section of the left margin apparently filled with modern paper. (MRS) Windsor, VT: "Printed for the Flying Book-Sellers, Jan. 1, 1815"
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Additional Details

Quite a bit is happening in this lively broadside (enough to baffle generations of cataloguers seeking to assign a proper title). Four songs celebrate the recent Union victories. Small woodcuts surround the text, accompanied by humorous comments and doggerel. Our favorite is George Prévost, Governor General of British America, inexplicably shown "arrested for cowardice, and seatede on an Elephant" in the lower right corner; however, he is shown riding a boar in the center column. On the left is "A Green-Mountain Boy, with his foot on the head of an Indian." In the center, a cut of the "British Lion" is printed upside-down, giving it the appearance of clinging in fright to a tree branch. This broadside is guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment, particularly if you start admiring the conservation work.
Second issue, with "The Retreat of the English" replacing "Interesting Sketch." The first issue was dated 1 January 1816, apparently in error, but the 1 January 1815 date cannot be correct either, as the 8 January 1815 Battle of New Orleans is discussed. Duffy, Vermont Broadsides 12; McCorison, Vermont Additions II 1821B; Shaw & Shoemaker 37740. Provenance: sold by M & S Rare Books to the consignor, 2004.