Abraham Lincoln, Oval Bust Photograph, O-16, Salt Print

Description

This Abraham Lincoln Oval Bust Photograph is a Salt Print of O-16. It was taken by Samuel M. Fassett of Chicago on 4 October 1859. Mary Lincoln is said to have called it “the best likeness she had ever seen of her husband.”

This photograph has an overall clarity and detail strongly suggesting that it was made directly from Fassett’s lost negative, which burned in the great Chicago Fire of 1871. Salt prints were supplanted by albumen shortly after the start of the Civil War. Rarely encountered.  A similar photo-in size, condition, quality, and scarcity –by Roderick Cole, recently sold at auction for $18,000. 

This is an excellent example!

Lincoln Photo. Oval Bust Salt Print Photograph of Abraham Lincoln.  Approx. 5.25 x 7.25 inches, mounted on old thin card about 7 x 8.75 inches; handsomely — and correctly ““ mounted in a period-looking frame.