2024-01 Raynors Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/21/2024
The unique raised artwork, 7" x 9" after Anthony Berger's photograph at Brady's Washington Gallery on February 9, 1864 (O-91). This image was frequently used in mourning prints by Currier & Ives, Golden and Sammons, E. N. Moore and Co. and others This piece displays Lincoln in relief with draped tassels above and flowers below. The title is "Lincoln Souvenir" and is signed in alto relief "J.C. Miller". John Calvin Miller (c.1849-1934) enjoyed great notoriety as one of America's most skilled "penmen", a 19th century term for an individual with highly artistic and technical writing and engraving abilities. Born about 45 minutes west of Harrisburg, Miller spent most of his life in Pennsylvania but taught penmanship in business colleges throughout the East Coast. He also dabbled in architecture, including the design of churches and stained glass murals. Miller began to ply his artistic trade as a teenaged student, when he offered "alto-relief" portraits of notables, including President Abraham Lincoln. Interestingly, Miller also offered hand-drawn impressions of "his Gettysburg speech", the Gettysburg Address. In 2020 Fleischer's Auction House sold a broadside advertising J.C. Miller LINCOLN SOUVENIRS. Their description includes, "Exquisite Hand-Drawn Lincoln-related Broadside 20 x 15. This remarkable hand-drawn broadside served as an advertisement for "Lincoln Souvenirs" created by J.C. Miller, an "Artistic Penman" from Saville, Pennsylvania. We believe this remarkable broadside dates to c. 1865, soon after the assassination of President Lincoln, when the public clamored for any Lincoln souvenir they could get their hands on.
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