One Carved Wood and Two Cast Bronze Sculptures of Lincoln's Hand in Death

Description:

One Carved Wood and Two Cast Bronze Sculptures of Lincoln's Hand in Death, lg. 6 1/2 in.

Note: The original plaster molds of Lincoln's hands were taken on May 19th, 1860, by Leonard Volk, a Chicago sculptor, which Volk intended to use for a full-length sculpture. In the late 1860s, reportedly, Volk traveled to Rome to have molds made from those castings. In 1873, he made three sets of plaster castings from these molds. One of these sets reportedly ended up in the possession of Jean Leon Gerome, Volk's son's art teacher. In 1875-77 or so, Truman Bartlett, a noted Lincoln scholar and collector, visited France and was given Gerome's plaster set, who soon after had a bronze set cast from those molds. Apparently, Bartlett had another set cast in New York a few years later. This could be one of those sets. It differs in a number of ways from other sets made later, including by Saint-Gaudens in the 1880s; a visual comparative analysis and considerable research provided by the consignor seems to indicate that these casts are indeed early ones, richly defined and detailed.

Provenance: The collection of Eylandt Antiques.
Estimate $800-1,200


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