Pair of Warship Albumens Incl. Tinclad USS St. Clair and Shipboard Scene

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American Historical Ephemera and Photography

By Cowan's Auctions

Nov 19, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-11-19 10:00:00 2020-11-19 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American Historical Ephemera and Photography https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-historical-ephemera-and-photography-5894
Cowan’s Auctions, a Hindman Company, is pleased to present the November 19 Fall Auction, featuring over 400 lots of historically significant photography, manuscript material, artwork, and other ephemera dating from the 18th through the early 20th century, including the Civil War. Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com

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• Lot Description
  Lot of 2 albumen photographs of the Brown Water Navy tinclad USS St. Clair at anchor along with a telescopic view looking forward of an unknown ship's gun crew assembled for the photograph. 
  
  Albumen photograph, 5 x 7 in., on 7 x 9 in. mount, of the shallow-draft sternwheeler USS St. Clair (No. 19) riding at anchor under steam probably at Cairo, IL, following repairs to battle damages sustained at Palmyra, TN on April 3, 1863. Note the number "19" painted on the side of her deck house surrounded by a protective canvas awning along with sundry crew lining the upper deck. St. Clair had been officially designated Gunboat No. 19 on June 19, 1863 and proceeded from Cairo to Vicksburg on convoy escort duty. Following the fall of Vicksburg she operated in support of army operations between Donaldsonsville, LA, and New Orleans. During the Red River Campaign St. Clair reinforced the defenses at Alexandria and engaged the enemy below the city on April 21, 1864, later in the month "silencing rebel gun positions at Dunn's Bayou and Wilson's Bend." With the successful extraction of Porter's fleet from the shallow Red River, St. Clair escorted fleet transports back to the safety of the Mississippi before returning to station off Baton Rouge. By January 1865 St. Clair was acting as a dispatch boat and convoy escort on the Tennessee River before ending the war at New Orleans. USS St. Clair was decommissioned at Mound City on July 12, 1865 and subsequently sold out of service. The albumen is mounted on a castoff 1863 calendar having colorful graphics advertising "John C. Beale/Stationer/19 Nassau Street/New York."
  
  The second deck view, 5 x 8 in., on 8 x 10 in. mount, appears to be a smaller unidentified sailing vessel having a large bore carriage gun and two smaller brass cannonades amidship with a heavy pivot gun on the forecastle.  Details of the furled sails and complex rigging and ropes are apparent.  Just in front of the mast there appears to be the stubby barrel of a medium size mortar. An officer with rank insignia denoting Master (star over three stripes, 1864 Regulations) is leaning against the base of the mast. Posed for the camera a second (more) junior officer and twelve ratings share the deck space. Six additional sailors are visible on forecastle, likely the gun crew of the pivot. On the starboard side foreground a ship's boat is secured to (metal) davits highlighting the complicated block and tackle arrangement. Spread across the hazy horizon are what appear to be other vessels too washed out to identity. 
  
  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

  St. Clair albumen undamaged with strong clarity and tones. Both upper corners of albumen lifting from mount with evident calendar graphics bleeding through. Overall, VG. The shipboard scene with strong clarity to mid-range and pleasant sepia tones.  Four-corner pencil lines denote where a picture framer had measured.  The upper corners of the mount show damage with pieces torn away.  Several penciled words upper right are incomplete and unreadable. Photograph VG+. 
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