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Lincoln: You can collect him but you can not own him - By Bruce McKinney The assassination of Lincoln prompted a national outpouring of mourning and tributes. By Bruce McKinney The second Lloyd Ostendorf Collection of Lincolniana comes under the hammer at Bonhams & Butterfields on November 23rd, 2004. The first set was sold to a museum in 1986 and this is a collection he subsequently built. There are 209 lots. Lloyd Ostendorf, who lived in Dayton, Ohio, spent almost seventy years collecting material relating to Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. Mr. Ostendorf was a collector, scholar and photographer whose book, Lincoln in Photographs, is an important reference for the field. Mr. Ostendorf also wrote, edited and contributed to many other volumes relating to Lincoln. He started collecting early in his life and early in the second cycle of "Lincoln collecting." The first wave of important collections of Lincolniana had come to the market a full generation earlier. He bought his first material in the 1930s and focused on the photographic images that were invented during Lincoln's lifetime. In the President's changing image the story of a nation under siege is visible though the wear, anxiety and fatigue in the man. Much of what we "feel" about the Civil War today we "know" from Lincoln images. In 1986 Mr. Ostendorf sold a substantial portion of his collection to the Lincoln Museum and promptly began to reinvest the proceeds in additional Lincoln items. Over the ensuing years this second collection emerged as an eclectic combination of both important and peripheral images and documents, an assortment of Lincoln images in life, photographs of an array of front and back row players and a variety death and funeral related pieces. For starters let's consider an image of Lincoln's horse, "Old Robin." Mr. Lincoln sold his horse in 1861 for reasons that aren't clear. This is lot 9017 and is estimated at $300 to $500. Not every lot is terribly expensive. The cost to get from horse to rider varies. Lot 9171 has a man on a horse. It's not Lincoln however. It's Ulysses S. Grant and apparently taken in 1869. It is estimated at $1,500 to $2,500.
Lincoln: You can collect him but you can not own him - By Bruce McKinney Lincoln at his second inaugural shortly before his death. Lincoln in a woman's dress is available as one of the novelty images in lot 9088. This is a small image which may explain how it survived. In some circles, following Lincoln's assassination, possession of this disrespectful image might have cost you your life. Today it is part of a lot that will cost you much less. It is estimated at $800 to $1,200. Lot 9200 is a photograph of Lincoln with an accompanying patch/parcel/handful of his hair (40 to 60 strands). These hairs are identified as having been taken from his head after the assassination. Such a lovely idea: the harvesting of the Presidential crop. Enough such examples exist that it seems likely Lincoln was a Wooly Mammoth. Someday DNA testing will be standard procedure for collectors of such necrophilia. Mary Todd Lincoln may also have died bald. Lots 9203 and 9204 include clumps of hair. The estimates are $1,000 to $2,000 and $3,000 to $5,000 and include images that are the principal reason for the estimates. While we are in the after-life there is lot 9198, eleven items relating to Lincoln's Tomb. For the estimate of $800 to $1,200 one can have this Lincoln Halloween lot. A photograph of the Lincoln home in Springfield in full mourning regalia is $2,000 to $3,000. A group of congressmen stand along the front edge blocking the view. Of greater interest is an 8" by 6" image of Lincoln's catafalque at the intersection of Broadway and Astor Place in New York City. The nation mourned its fallen leader. Lot 9191 is estimated at $1,000 to $2,000. In this lot you can feel the anxiety. Lot 9186 is a 13 1/2" by approximately 19" funeral broadside which begins "To the Citizens of Concord, Funeral of President Lincoln." Lincoln was paid $25,000 as President. Following his assassination a proclamation in some form was printed in virtually every town and city newspaper in the United States. This one is estimated at a 2 to 4 weeks of his salary: $1,000 to $2,000. There are four lots of John Wilkes Booth images. The deus ex machine of the Lincoln assassination flits across the stage in lots 9176 to 9179 at an aggregate low estimate of $5,700. Lot 9163 is a group of Civil War views that includes a train wreck that would earn someone a bonus at Fox News for grisly reporting. It is one of 9 images in the lot. The estimate is $1,500 to $2,000.
Lincoln: You can collect him but you can not own him - By Bruce McKinney New York pays its final respects to the fallen President. Those seeking a visual element for their Art and the Civil War collection will find lot 9152 of interest. It is a photograph of Leonard Volk. He was a sculptor who made life masks of Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the 1860 Presidential campaign. In the image he stands between sculptures of Douglas and Lincoln. This small piece of history is estimated $500 to $700. In the event you would like to have a photograph of the star speaker at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg in 1863 it is estimated at $300 to $500, a tip-off that it isn't Abraham Lincoln. Abe wrote his 3 minute and 14 second speech on the train on the way to Gettysburg while the principal speaker, Edward Everett, delivered a two hour speech from memory that is now forgotten. This is lot 9141, a carte-de-visite of Mr. Everett. Those who would like to know more about Mr. Everett are directed to Gary Wills' excellent book, Lincoln at Gettysburg. The spirit of Lincoln as expressed in the Second Inaugural Address is not present here although his images are. A remarkably important event in American history, four photographs of it are offered as lots 9117 to 9120. The lowest lot estimate is $500 and the highest $9,000. At that time he said, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." March 4, 1865. That Lincoln is not here. This is a sale of things and Lincoln was much larger than that. The sale is deep in photographic ephemera of President Lincoln along with images of many of the characters who had large and small roles in Lincoln's life and death. There are important Lincoln items and they are priced accordingly but this sale is primarily for those looking to put mortar between the bricks.

Lincoln: You can collect him but you can not own him

- By Bruce McKinney

The assassination of Lincoln prompted a national outpouring of mourning and tributes.

By Bruce McKinney

The second Lloyd Ostendorf Collection of Lincolniana comes under the hammer at Bonhams & Butterfields on November 23rd, 2004. The first set was sold to a museum in 1986 and this is a collection he subsequently built. There are 209 lots.

Lloyd Ostendorf, who lived in Dayton, Ohio, spent almost seventy years collecting material relating to Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. Mr. Ostendorf was a collector, scholar and photographer whose book, Lincoln in Photographs, is an important reference for the field. Mr. Ostendorf also wrote, edited and contributed to many other volumes relating to Lincoln.

He started collecting early in his life and early in the second cycle of "Lincoln collecting." The first wave of important collections of Lincolniana had come to the market a full generation earlier. He bought his first material in the 1930s and focused on the photographic images that were invented during Lincoln's lifetime. In the President's changing image the story of a nation under siege is visible though the wear, anxiety and fatigue in the man. Much of what we "feel" about the Civil War today we "know" from Lincoln images.

In 1986 Mr. Ostendorf sold a substantial portion of his collection to the Lincoln Museum and promptly began to reinvest the proceeds in additional Lincoln items. Over the ensuing years this second collection emerged as an eclectic combination of both important and peripheral images and documents, an assortment of Lincoln images in life, photographs of an array of front and back row players and a variety death and funeral related pieces.

For starters let's consider an image of Lincoln's horse, "Old Robin." Mr. Lincoln sold his horse in 1861 for reasons that aren't clear. This is lot 9017 and is estimated at $300 to $500. Not every lot is terribly expensive. The cost to get from horse to rider varies.

Lot 9171 has a man on a horse. It's not Lincoln however. It's Ulysses S. Grant and apparently taken in 1869. It is estimated at $1,500 to $2,500.

Lincoln: You can collect him but you can not own him

- By Bruce McKinney

Lincoln at his second inaugural shortly before his death.

Lincoln in a woman's dress is available as one of the novelty images in lot 9088. This is a small image which may explain how it survived. In some circles, following Lincoln's assassination, possession of this disrespectful image might have cost you your life. Today it is part of a lot that will cost you much less. It is estimated at $800 to $1,200.

Lot 9200 is a photograph of Lincoln with an accompanying patch/parcel/handful of his hair (40 to 60 strands). These hairs are identified as having been taken from his head after the assassination. Such a lovely idea: the harvesting of the Presidential crop. Enough such examples exist that it seems likely Lincoln was a Wooly Mammoth. Someday DNA testing will be standard procedure for collectors of such necrophilia.

Mary Todd Lincoln may also have died bald. Lots 9203 and 9204 include clumps of hair. The estimates are $1,000 to $2,000 and $3,000 to $5,000 and include images that are the principal reason for the estimates.

While we are in the after-life there is lot 9198, eleven items relating to Lincoln's Tomb. For the estimate of $800 to $1,200 one can have this Lincoln Halloween lot.

A photograph of the Lincoln home in Springfield in full mourning regalia is $2,000 to $3,000. A group of congressmen stand along the front edge blocking the view.

Of greater interest is an 8" by 6" image of Lincoln's catafalque at the intersection of Broadway and Astor Place in New York City. The nation mourned its fallen leader. Lot 9191 is estimated at $1,000 to $2,000. In this lot you can feel the anxiety.

Lot 9186 is a 13 1/2" by approximately 19" funeral broadside which begins "To the Citizens of Concord, Funeral of President Lincoln." Lincoln was paid $25,000 as President. Following his assassination a proclamation in some form was printed in virtually every town and city newspaper in the United States. This one is estimated at a 2 to 4 weeks of his salary: $1,000 to $2,000.

There are four lots of John Wilkes Booth images. The deus ex machine of the Lincoln assassination flits across the stage in lots 9176 to 9179 at an aggregate low estimate of $5,700.

Lot 9163 is a group of Civil War views that includes a train wreck that would earn someone a bonus at Fox News for grisly reporting. It is one of 9 images in the lot. The estimate is $1,500 to $2,000.

Lincoln: You can collect him but you can not own him

- By Bruce McKinney

New York pays its final respects to the fallen President.

Those seeking a visual element for their Art and the Civil War collection will find lot 9152 of interest. It is a photograph of Leonard Volk. He was a sculptor who made life masks of Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the 1860 Presidential campaign. In the image he stands between sculptures of Douglas and Lincoln. This small piece of history is estimated $500 to $700.

In the event you would like to have a photograph of the star speaker at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg in 1863 it is estimated at $300 to $500, a tip-off that it isn't Abraham Lincoln. Abe wrote his 3 minute and 14 second speech on the train on the way to Gettysburg while the principal speaker, Edward Everett, delivered a two hour speech from memory that is now forgotten. This is lot 9141, a carte-de-visite of Mr. Everett. Those who would like to know more about Mr. Everett are directed to Gary Wills' excellent book, Lincoln at Gettysburg.

The spirit of Lincoln as expressed in the Second Inaugural Address is not present here although his images are. A remarkably important event in American history, four photographs of it are offered as lots 9117 to 9120. The lowest lot estimate is $500 and the highest $9,000. At that time he said,

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." March 4, 1865.

That Lincoln is not here. This is a sale of things and Lincoln was much larger than that.

The sale is deep in photographic ephemera of President Lincoln along with images of many of the characters who had large and small roles in Lincoln's life and death. There are important Lincoln items and they are priced accordingly but this sale is primarily for those looking to put mortar between the bricks.