Sale 2486 Lot 94

(PRINTS--1860 CAMPAIGN.) Unusual and unidentified Lincoln campaign portrait with President Washington on verso. Tinted lithograph, 16 3/4 x 14 inches, with facsimile signature "Yours truly, A Lincoln" in image and decorative tinted border but no caption information or credit, with later chromolithograph portrait of Washington on verso; minor foxing and wear. Np, circa 1860

Estimate $400 - 600

A grimly determined portrait of Lincoln. It was apparently based on the circa 1858 ambrotype credited to Roderick Cole of Peoria, which was also used in a Currier & Ives campaign print (see Ostendorf O-14 and Lincoln Image pages 28-29). Any lithographer's credit or publisher's imprint has long since been cropped off. With beardless portraits of Lincoln going swiftly out of fashion in 1861, this print was apparently used as waste paper and recycled with a richly colored chromolithograph of Gilbert Stuart's classic Washington portrait printed on verso. The resulting oval crop leaves Lincoln slightly off-center, but Washington is perfectly presented. The tinted border around the Lincoln portrait is identical to one later used by Strobridge, Middleton & Co. of Cincinnati (see lot 126). The Washington resembles Middleton's common 1864 "warranted oil colors" portrait and is the same size, but does not have the usual canvas backing seen on the Middleton prints.