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Lithograph prints

Lithograph prints are renowned for their accessibility and adaptability, enabling artists to produce high-quality prints that remain rooted in the act of drawing. The prints are made by drawing a design onto either a flat stone or a prepared metal plate, utilising the natural repulsion between oil and water to create the image. Celebrated for the fluidity of movement and tonal range this technique offers, the medium has attracted artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí.

LINCOLN, Abraham, EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. Partly printed document signed ("Abraham Lincoln") as President, also signed by SECRETARY OF STATE WILLIAM H. SEWARD ("William H. Seward") and by John G. Nicolay, "Private Secretary to the President," to certify the document is "A true copy, with the autograph signatures of the President and the Secretary of State." [Text:] Whereas, on the Twenty-Second Day of September...a Proclamation was issued by the President...That, on the First day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as Slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforth, and FOREVER FREE...Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, by virtue of the power vested in me as Commander in Chief of the Army and the Navy...I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves, within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be free...the Executive Government of the United States, including the Military and Naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the Freedom of said persons.... [Philadelphia: Frederick Leypoldt, 6 June 1864]. Eberstadt, Emancipation Proclamation , 32. Folio broadside, 22 x 17 3/8 in., watermarked "J. Whatman 1861," heading at top ("By the President of the United States of America"), in large sans-serif capitals, second line ("A Proclamation") in gothic-style type, body of the text, printed in a single column, THE SHEET WITH FULL MARGINS, minute stain to left of signature, clean tear to blank lower left corner, with a triangular section of paper neatly renewed, otherwise in very fine condition, without the rust spots or foxing some copies exhibit. "A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM": THE AUTHORIZED EDITION OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, SIGNED BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND SECRETARY OF STATE SEWARD As historian John Hope Franklin has written, Lincoln's Proclamation "has maintained its place as one of America's truly important documents," even though "it had neither the felicity of the Declaration of Independence nor the simple grandeur of the Gettysburg Address." But it undoubtedly constituted a critical "step toward the extension of the ideal of equality about which Jefferson had written." And in time, Franklin adds, "the greatness of the document dawned upon the nation and the world. Gradually, it took its place with the great documents of human freedom" ( The Emancipation Proclamation , 1963, pp.143-144). The influence it commanded, from the very moment of its issuance is amply demonstrated by the multiple printed forms in which it was issued, in many localities, over the next year (this array of printed, engraved and lithographic versions is the subject of Charles Eberstadt's bibliography). While it did not and could not end slavery throughout the divided nation, the Emancipation Proclamation constituted a fundamental act of justice with potent moral and humanitarian significance. Frederick Douglas wrote that he "saw in its spirit a life and power far beyond its letter." By Lincoln's Proclamation, the road to freedom was thrown open to millions who had previously existed only as chattel slaves. It paved the way for the soon-to-be-adopted Thirteenth Amendment, which finally eliminated slavery within the United States, a major step towards the fulfillment of the promise of Jefferson's ringing pronouncement in the Declaration of Independence: "all men are created equal." Truly, it gave the nation what Lincoln himself, in the Gettysburg Address would rightly term, a few months later, "a new birth of freedom." The oversize, deluxe authorized oversize printing of the historic text was the creation of two Philadelphians, both dedicated to the cause of the Union and profoundly opposed to slavery. Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903), author and journalist, studied with Bronson Alcott as a youth and later attended Princeton. A successful journalist, from 1857 he was the editor of Graham's magazine, and in 1862 took over the Continental Monthly , a Boston paper conceived as an organ for the Union cause. In that role, he later claimed to have "coined the term emancipation as a substitute for the disreputable term abolition" (DAB). In 1863, resolved to fight for the cause, he enlisted in a Pennsylvania artillery regiment which fought at Gettysburg and elsewhere. George Henry Boker (1823-1890), his partner in this edition of the Emancipation Proclamation, was the scion of a Philadelphia banking family. Boker's stage plays were successfully performed in the U.S. and abroad and during the war he published a poem critical of General McClellan, "Tardy George." A founder of the Union League Club of Philadelphia, he was active in raising funds for the Union wounded and aiding families of soldiers and sailors. Leland and Boker conceived the idea to issue the text of the Emancipation Proclamation in a limited edition and to enhance the broadside with the signatures of the President and Secretary of State. These deluxe copies would then be offered for sale to the well-heeled public (for the not inconsiderable sum of ten dollars each) at the Great Central Sanitary Fair, held in Philadelphia June 7 to 29. Proceeds of the fair were to go to war relief. According to Eberstadt, "the fair attracted more than one hundred thousand visitors who spent more than one million dollars," but, surprisingly, "not all copies of this souvenir edition were sold. Of the remaining copies, a few were presented to libraries, and five others were sold for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission...at the National Sailor's Fair (November 9-19, 1864) in Boston." Most of the approximately 15 surviving copies of the broadside are in permanent public collections; we are aware of only two other copies in private hands. IN THE LAST 40 YEARS, ONLY THREE HAVE BEEN OFFERED AT AUCTION. Provenance : Anonymous owner (sale, Sotheby's New York, Oct 31, 1984, lot 134, $297,000).