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8-C Maine Antique Digest, March 2015
- AUCTION -
Archive of Colonel Orland Smith,
73rd Ohio Infantry, consisting of five
war diaries, a sword and scabbard, a
hand-colored albumen photograph of
Smith as a colonel, and a hand-painted
escutcheon on canvas detailing Smith’s
wartime service, $18,000.
Confederate cipher disk, brass, stamped “C.S.A./ S.S.”
and maker’s mark “F. Labarre/ Richmond, VA.,” in a
book-motif presentation case, $18,000. Ex-Philip Sang
collection.
Quarter-plate daguerreotype, identi-
fied as “JohnA.P. FiskAged 15/Weight
360 Pounds,” solarization at the mat
edges, scattered imperfections, $1230.
Fisk (1836-1898) was a well-known
New York City restaurateur and pres-
ident of the famed Fat Men’s Club. An
1894
New York Times
article about the
failure of Fisk’s Broad Street restau-
rant after nearly 50 years in business
noted that he was a third-genera-
tion chophouse keeper and that his
father and grandfather, both men of
“great avoirdupois,” required that
he weigh 295 pounds before entering
the family business, which he did at
age 13. Fisk was over 500 pounds at
the time the article was written, and
the
Times
called his presidency of
the Fat Men’s Club “a distinction his
weight entitled him.” Membership
was limited to men weighing at least
200 pounds.
This is a folk portrait of Abraham Lincoln
in a short beard on the back of a violin
owned by Isaac I. Stevens (1818-1862).
With some cracking to the surface
paint, it brought $3000. The painting
was possibly produced around the
1860 election or during the early part
of the Civil War, and it could be one of
a few known paintings of Lincoln cre-
ated during his lifetime, according to the
catalog. The 21 stars in the oval border
relate to the number of northern states
in the Union at the start of the war.
Stevens was the first governor of
Washington Territory and a Civil
War general who died at the Bat-
tle of Chantilly in 1862.
ALS (autograph letter signed) written by Abraham Lincoln,
one page, dated August 2, 1858, toned, foxed, laid down on
cardboard, overwritten in dark ink for the purpose of creat-
ing a facsimile for a publication of Lincoln’s correspondence,
$7800. The letter was found inside a book purchased at a Flor-
ida flea market and had been featured on a segment of the PBS
series
History Detectives
in 2007.
“Votes for Women/ Suffra-
gette” bisque figure of an
African-American
woman,
often referred to as the
Sojourner Truth figurine,
attributed to Schafer & Vater,
a German porcelain com-
pany that produced a series
of approximately 20 suffrage-
related statuettes, 7½" high,
light soiling, $960.
Quarter-plate daguerreotype of Califor-
nia pioneer Nathaniel Miller (1815-1896),
wearing a fringed buckskin jacket with a
large knife tucked in his belt and a percus-
sion rifle slung over his shoulder, very good
condition, original seals, $15,600.
“Autographs of
Eminent Amer-
icans
,”
presen-
tation document
featuring signa-
tures of Abraham
Lincoln, Ulysses
S. Grant, George Armstrong Custer, and other Civil War-era
figures, the original ink and watercolor drawing signed by
Octavius L. Pruden of Washington, D.C., and dated 1866, hav-
ing 12 signatures, including cabinet members, congressmen,
and generals, 12" x 9" plus frame, minor spotting, $9000.
Woodbury-type cabinet
card of “Miss Annie Oak-
ley, / ‘Little Sure Shot.’/
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,”
lacking a studio imprint
but produced in England,
probably in the 1890s, rich
tones, light wear and spot-
ting on the mount, $4800.