December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024
Attributed to CHARLES SOULE (Maine/Ohio,1809-1869. “Portrait of Major Luther Giddings, 1st Ohio Vols., 1846.” Oil on canvas, 29-3/4 x 25 in.; within gilt wood and composition frame. Major Luther Giddings (1823-1877) was born in Cornwall, England and immigrated with his family to Baltimore, Maryland in 1829. He graduated St. Johns College at Annapolis in 1841 and studied law afterwards. He relocated to Dayton, Ohio in 1844m was admitted to the Ohio bar. In addition to practicing law, he joined the Dayton Dragoons and in time, became its captain. When war broke out with Mexico in 1846, he raised the Dayton Rifles which became part of the 1st Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. Promoted major, Giddings and the regiment joined General Taylor’s army on the Rio Grande in late summer. The 1st Ohio fought valorously at the battle of Monterey on 20 SEP 1846 and later, while escorting a large supply train of wagons and pack mules, a detachment under the command of Major Giddings successfully repelled a major cavalry attack at Ceravallo, Mexico on 7 MAR 1847. Their one-year term of service expired shortly thereafter, and they returned to Ohio in June, where the NCOs and privates presented Gidding with a fine sword “as a token of respect.” This portrait was painted by Charles Soule, then the leading portrait painter in Ohio, shortly before the regiment marched to Mexico. It is accompanied by an original framed, graphite sketch by an unknown hand, “Headquarters 1st Regt. Ohio at Camp near Monterrey / Nov 20th [18]46” (7 ¼ x 12 in.), an 1893 hand-colored, photogravure of the William Trego painting of the Action at Ceravallo, and his leather-bound scrapbook containing contemporary newspaper clippings relating to the 1st Ohio’s service in Mexico and Giddings’ 1853 book: “Sketches of the Campaign in Northern Mexico in 1846 and 47, By an Officer of the First Regiment of Ohio Volunteers”, which is considered one of the best first-hand accounts by a participant in the conflict. PROVENANCE: By descent in the Giddings family of Annapolis; Arundel House Antiques to Don Tharpe, 2003; acquired in 2015. CONDITION: The portrait is lined, has craquelure and scattered areas of inpainting, the frame with minor abrasions and loss, otherwise very good; the scrapbook with a fold; and the drawing with creases and light toning.