Abraham Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation Print
GUEST: Well, I grew up in a small farm north of here, and my neighbor boy had a beautiful farm, and he would tell me of all the neat prints and paintings and stuff that was up in the attic. And when his parents passed away, he gave me this picture, because I liked historical things.
APPRAISER: Value on prints comes from a number of things. Obviously the appearance is important, the scarcity is important. But to me, the most interesting thing is the way that a print is connected with a historical event. Now, you know what this print is about, which is...
GUEST: Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet signing the Emancipation Proclamation.
APPRAISER: The artist of this print is a man named Francis Carpenter, and he thought the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation was one of the great achievements of humankind. And he was very proud of it as an American, and he wanted to document it. So he petitioned Abraham Lincoln to be able to make, in effect, an official print of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. This is actually a scene of the reading of the emancipation before the Cabinet, but it's the same basic event. Now, Lincoln did the Emancipation Proclamation because he believed in it, but also as a political move, because he thought it would give a cause to the North in the Civil War. So, he said to Francis Carpenter, "Yes, let's do a print," but not only that, he invited Francis Carpenter into the White House. And for a sixth-month period, Francis Carpenter moved in to the White House and used the dining room as a studio. So each member of the Cabinet had to go and sit, and he had his photograph taken, and Carpenter worked on the portraits. And then he constructed this scene, which is wonderful. Carpenter then took this print and he publicized it by issuing many of these. And they went out into the public and really brought a lot of fame and import to this event, which really helped the Northern cause. You can see that the impression is excellent. The detail is very, very good. If you look up here, you have the chandelier, you have a portrait of Jackson behind, which, you can see his face just barely. This print was issued in 1864 or thereabouts. On the back, it has old wood slats. Those wood slats have acid in it. That acid is moving into the paper. And you can see, around the edges of the paper, you have some stains-- it's getting brown, it's getting splotches. In this condition, if it were in a shop, I would expect to see maybe $800, $900 on it.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: If you fix it up, you have a print that's worth maybe $1,600 to $1,800.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Now, it's expensive to fix it up. If you don't do anything to this, it's going to fall apart, and you'll have nothing. Thank you very much for bringing it in, 'cause it's one of my favorite prints.
GUEST: Oh, thanks, Chris. Well, that's great.
$1,800 Retail
$800 - $900 Retail
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