Abraham Lincoln Campaign Button, ca. 1860
GUEST: This is an, I believe, ambrotype political pin from Abraham Lincoln. He's without the beard. I believe it's from 1860. And it's been in my family since my great-great-grandfather, who lived in Searsport, Maine. And it's been passed down through my grandmother's family to me
APPRAISER: And what was his name?
GUEST: Um, Edwin Sargent.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: He must have purchased it or acquired it during his lifetime.
APPRAISER: Yes. So, it's a campaign pin. It was used for his campaign in 1860. He came to New York to do a lecture at Cooper Union, he had his new $100 suit on...
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: ...which I think is close to $4,000 in today's money.
GUEST: Wow, I see.
APPRAISER: That shows you that he really wanted to... make himself very presentable and be seen in the right light. But, uh, historians said that he still looked very frumpy in his suit.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So I guess maybe it wasn't worth it. He had his photograph taken by a very famous photographer, Mathew Brady, who is known for producing some of the best photographs that we have of Lincoln today.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: Now, the photograph that was originally taken shows Lincoln from the knees up. So it's a very large, almost full-length portrait...
GUEST: Sure.
APPRAISER: And obviously has been cropped down here to fit this format. This was the first time that photographs were used for a presidential campaign to promote a candidate.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: And it played a major role...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...because this image by Mathew Brady was hugely popular.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Made into postcards and put in Harper's Weekly. And, I mean, it was everywhere So, the back paper tells us that even though the photograph was taken by Mathew Brady, the ambrotype itself was made by George Clark.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: He's the one that was actually responsible for turning this image into the campaign pins.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And unfortunately, that part is ripped. And then, we look at the front, and these photographs were extremely susceptible to flaking...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...of the emulsion off of that glass plate, which is what makes an ambrotype an ambrotype. So, unfortunately, there is a little bit of loss there. But overall, I think that the saturation of this image is really nice for its age. Okay. The brass mat is in really good condition. These photographs are very rare. We don't see very many of them at all. Definitely under 50.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: probably under 30. There's one in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Really, it's going to come down to how saturated that image is, how punchy it is, and the condition of that information on the back.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: So it's, it's really the full package.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: I'd say, at an auction, probably $12,000 to $18,000.
GUEST: Wow. Wow, that's amazing.
APPRAISER: I think it's really special.
GUEST: Nice. Thank you so much. I'm so honored that it was passed down to me.
APPRAISER: I've seen the photographs in the campaign pin format sell for upwards of $30,000.
$12,000 - $18,000 Auction
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Understanding Our Appraisals
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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