November 17, 2020 Early Arms & Militaria: Age of Exploration, Empire & Revolution
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/17/2020
[“Old Ironsides”—the frigate USS Constitution]. Joseph Gardner, autograph letter signed, to George Bliss of Boston, dated Hanover, New York, February 13 [1834], 1 page (12-1/4" x 7") with address block on reverse. A semi-comic letter of complaint concerning the controversial carving of a new figurehead for the US frigate Constitution (then in drydock at Boston Navy Yard) to be in the likeness of then-President Andrew Jackson. The figurehead was already underway in the workshop of local carver Laban Beecher when Gardner penned a lengthy, one sentence diatribe spanning an entire page that he “as a captain of the Militia of the 247 Ridgement [sic] 43 Brigade & 26th division of the militia of New York wish to know what in the name of God Allmighty the Father Son & Holy Gost [sic], the holy canons…angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, powers, cherubims, seraphims & of all the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles and evangelists…together with the holy elect of God the reason you did not stop…when you saw him a cut[t]ing the figger head of the Constitution. Yours in haste, J. Gardner.” Beecher received numerous threats from Anti-Jacksonians and convinced the Navy Yard commandant, Jesse Duncan Elliot (who proposed and commissioned the figurehead), to allow him to finish the figure in the safety of the Navy Yard, which occurred the following month. The figurehead was completed and installed on “Old Ironsides” only to be decapitated under cover of darkness on 2 July 1834 by an irate Boston ship captain, Samuel Dewey. The identity of the author of this letter, Joseph Gardner (1799-1872) of Hanover, Chautauqua County was recently confirmed, as was his status as an officer in the militia. The recipient would appear to be Bostonian George Bliss (1793-1873) a businessman and politician who was elected President of the Massachusetts Senate the following year. CONDITION: Some splitting at folds and a small hole on upper margin from tearing of wax seal. JLK