Your help here... Brig General Abner Doubleday

[Belfast1933]

Wondering if any experienced 54’ers might have some info on this Brig General Abner Doubleday image... I once found an auction house selling a full set of these which I believe dates back to late 1800’s

Anyone know much about this? Wondering if I can get this “authenticated” and determine its value.

Thx for any leads here I’ve brought this to local shows (before discovering Net54baseball). Lots of interesting looks, but no one knows much how to validate or value.

Jeff

[bbnut]

You sure its a real auto? Many, many portrait engravings of that time period featured a facsimile auto.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[Belfast1933]

No, definitely NOT a real autograph. It was some kind of steel print imaging they used to print this set, as best I can tell

[MooseDog]

What is the text of the "Published By..." line. I can't read it in the pics.

[Michael B]

As others have said, it is part of the engraving, not a real signature. This engraving and others like it were removed from a series of books printed during and after the Civil War. Years ago I had many of these of different generals. They are not worth much more than $30-70. I would find them usually stained. I would clean them and they would look like new. The cleaning process takes practice so I won't put it here.

[oldeboo]

A little more info from some quick research I did. It looks like these were indeed sold as a set inside individual sleeves in a portfolio. That would explain why many of these engravings survive in nice shape. A link is attached that has some decent information about these images. The photo was taken by the famous Civil War photographer, Matthew Brady, then engraved by J.C. Buttre and presumably sold by him. Your image depicts Doubleday as a Brigadier General(1 star), there are also engravings depicting him as a Major General(2 star). He was a 1 star in 1862 and became a 2 star during 1863. Your item is most likely from that 1862-1863 period. These are obviously beautiful engravings that would have brought these individuals to life during the time. One just like yours sold in 2019 by Mile High Card Company for $30. I'd say if you're in the $20-$50 range you're doing okay for a nice looking period wall hanger.

https://www.williamreesecompany.com/pages/books/WRCAM49849/civil-war-union-officers-john-chester-buttre/collection-of-fifty-engravings-of-civil-war-union-generals-colonels-commodores-and-other

(Images not mine)