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RARE & IMPORTANT CUSTER FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Other Start Price:6,250.00 USD Estimated At:12,500.00 - 17,500.00 USD
RARE & IMPORTANT CUSTER  FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH
RARE & IMPORTANT CUSTER FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH . ALBUMIt is rare for any personal effects of General Custer, or his relatives, to come to market today, which makes this recent discovery a great find. This desirable leather-bound photograph/CDV album with numerous photographs and tintypes comes from the Kendall family. The photographs in the front of the album are primarily of the Richardson/Kendall family, and two of them feature Custer, and one, his wife Libby. Rebecca Richmond and Mary Richmond Kendall were Elizabeth Custer’s cousins and were very close to her. Mary’s husband Charles Kendall, featured in 3 of the photos was from Michigan and served in several Michigan cavalry units during the Civil War, and was a friend of Custer’s. One formal-looking pose features all five of these people, and another from the same sitting in Leavenworth Kansas shows the Kendall couple alone. Another group photo from Lexington KY shows a figure we believe to be Custer with two couples in a studio pose. The sitters all have very serious expressions, although the ladies are wearing hats and checkered scarves. The figure we believe to be Custer has his hair flipped out rather comically, and he appears to have stuffed a pillow into the front of his waistcoat. Custer was very fond of photography, and there are a number of photographs of him in costumes or humorous tableaus, so this photo may be of a similar vein. The very first photo in the album is of a distinguished gentleman with top hat and cane, whose features are not dissimilar to those of the Richmond ladies, possibly their father. There are 8 or so CDV photographs of military men in uniform, one of whom is identified on the reverse in period ink as: “Lieut. Bolza, killed in the battle of “Falling Waters” July 1863”. Another CDV of three young men is identified on the reverse in period ink as: “Thomas Mitchell, Charlie Kendall, John Morin, Grand Rapids 1861”. There are 8 or so unidentified tintypes in the album, as well as a litho of the Lincoln family, and an anti-southern CDV depicting a Southern graveyard with scathing epitaphs on the tombstones. One of the tintypes appears to be one of the Richmond sisters. The consignor originally purchased this album from “Antiques and Art” with the understanding that it came directly out of the Kendall family. The album is 6-1/2” x 5-1/4” x 2” overall. It is nicely bound in leather embossed in gold on the spine “Album” and “12”. It is fitted with a simple brass clasp. CONDITION: There are tears to some photo pockets. The photos are overall in very good condition. The interior cloth spine has split in one place, all pages are present. A rare opportunity to own a Custer-family photograph album with personal photos and nice Civil War flavor. Further research may reveal the identity of the other people in this important album. 4-53490 JR927