April 2023 Auction Ends Thursday, April 27th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/27/2023
One of the scarcest and most important documents in the history of the United States: the very first printing of the reward poster for the capture of John Wilkes Booth and two other conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Printed by the War Department, Washington, DC on 20 April 1865, five days after President Lincoln passed and six days before Booth was killed.
This broadside reward poster is the very first printing and also the rarest of the three iterations printed by the War Department, with some estimates of fewer than five existing today. It is much scarcer than the second printing, which has three woodcut frames at top for photographs of the conspirators. That second printing poster has recently sold several times in excess of $200,000. This first printing poster is so scarce that no recent auction records exist.
In large, bold type, poster reads ''$100,000 REWARD / THE MURDERER / Of our late beloved President Abraham Lincoln, / IS STILL AT LARGE''. Reward money for each man is listed, and at the bottom, their descriptions: Booth is ''Five Feet 7 or 8 inches high...black hair, black eyes, and wears a heavy black moustache.''; in later printings, the public is warned that Booth has likely shaved off his moustache. John H. Surratt is described at length, and then David E. Herold (here misspelled as ''David C. Harold'') is described as ''a little, chunky man, quite a youth, and wears a very thin moustache.''
Poster measures approximately 22.125" x 12.125", as called for, with edges trimmed slightly. Linen backed some time ago, with damp-staining to linen. Expected age wear, with damp-staining to edges, toning and spots of discoloration. Creasing, with closed tears and some paper loss, mostly at middle top. Overall in good to very good condition with no substantial loss of text and displaying very well.
Poster originates from the Philadelphia area, passed down through the same family until its auction here; it has never been sold or auctioned before. A museum worthy piece, perhaps the only opportunity to own the very first printing of the reward poster of the first U.S. President to be assassinated.
References: ''Twenty Days'' by Kunhardt & Kunhardt; ''Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution'' by Swanson and Weinberg.
John Wilkes Booth Reward Poster for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln -- Rare First Printing of One of the Most Important Documents in U.S. History, With Only a Few Extant
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