Lot of 3 CDVs providing scenic views of warships at anchor. McPherson & Oliver: New Orleans, LA, n.d. First is unidentified carte of four gunboats close-in to shore. Penciled in modern hand is the notation "
City Class/USS Osage/City Class/USS Lexington." A small boat appears to be ready to cast off from the bank. The second view depicts a line of four vessels anchored in a narrow channel. At least three are warships with second vessel in from the right, a smaller tender. A modern pencil notation identifies one of the ships as the "
Ironclad Kickapoo." The last CDV is ink identified on verso as the "
Ironclad/Chillicothe/Taken at Alexandria/Red River."
The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection Lots 37, 69-98, 295 Cowan's enthusiastically presents the second installment of collector Richard B. Cohen's matchless archive of Civil War Brown Water Navy photography. Richard was known to many in the field - indeed some of these images may resonate from a bygone transaction or "show and tell' - but to those who knew him best he'll be remembered as a "disciplined collector who maintained a relatively narrow focus having built an important, perhaps unsurpassed collection in his area of specialization." This catalogued portion of the core collection is a seamless continuation of high quality photography highlighted by an array of Brown Water Navy warships in desirable carte-de-visite format. We counted no fewer than 22 different Mississippi River vessels, some battle-weary and familiar, others obscure, but all identified with many named in period ink. Research confirmed that several of these CDVs were signed by an officer who had served aboard the ship conveying the historic connection and spirit of "wooden ships and iron men." The last of the larger format albumen warships are also included - the USS Blackhawk, Eastport, and Louisville. A fine quartet of lots feature sought-after enlisted sailors. We proceed with eight additional lots of multiple identified officer cartes, the myriad of navy rank insignia during the Civil War both complex and instructive. We think it opportune to quote a comment from a previous buyer who emailed that, "...I draw inspiration from their BWN service when known, and when not offering (him) the opportunity to reconstruct an aspect of overlooked Civil War naval history." Now comes the time to further disperse Richard B. Cohen's collection and recycle the photography to the care of the next generation, and in so doing we salute a lifelong endeavor unlikely ever to be duplicated.
Provenence: The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection
Condition
The three photographs are all near VG. The third view identifed as"Chillicothe" has some minor distress in the foreground of the original negative as well as being being moderately soft in focus.