Seated Liberty Artwork, Does it exist?

[MaximilianMike]

Greetings!

 

I opened this thread to discuss a question I have about the design of the Seated Liberty Series. Does artwork capturing this design exist? I have searched antique store after antique store and the open web to find any type of engraving, canvas, lithograph, etching, etc. that portrays Christian Gobrecht's Seated Liberty design and also William Barber's design on the U.S. Trade Dollar?

 

I can't capture in words how much I really enjoy both magnificent designs. Anyways my search has left me empty handed. Has anyone ever come across them before? Or is there a website of someone who sells stuff like that?

 

Thanks

 

SubmarineMike

[RWB]

Thomas Sully and Titian Peale did the Seated Lib/FE $1 design. Original drawings are in the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. Copies are also in the US Mint archives at NARA. If Willie Barber's Trade dollar design drawings still exist, they will be in the Philadelphia Mint closed archives - no one has been allowed to examine the holdings due to "security" (i.e.: "mint too lazy to care").

[MaximilianMike]

Now that is a lead I can follow. It is unfortunate that the mint will not make its records public.

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

[RWB]

Both Mint HQ in Washington and the Philadelphia Mint hold unknown quantities of records that should have been in NARA decades ago. They hired a person to examine and catalog documents and physical materials, but so far nothing has come of it. They consistently refuse access to the materials.

[MJ]

Both Mint HQ in Washington and the Philadelphia Mint hold unknown quantities of records that should have been in NARA decades ago. They hired a person to examine and catalog documents and physical materials, but so far nothing has come of it. They consistently refuse access to the materials.

 

Why Roger? Just not deemed important enough? Sloth? No budget for Security? Not enough interest?

 

MJ

[RWB]

They have made various claims of "inavailability" to several researchers over the years. The most recent to me were: 1) no money to pay for security while looking through files, and 2) we don't have any space where you could look at documents.

 

PS: "Inavailability" is a new word; just like "numismyth" there is a fee for using it. Please check with my agent for the fee structure.

[MJ]

Truly sad................MJ

[TomB]

The first edition of Numismatic Art in America has a pair of sketches by Sully and Peale that might be of interest to you as well as additional sketches by Longacre that do not exactly cover your interests. There is a new edition of this classic work currently for sale, but I would imagine that the focus of the new edition might be substantially different than the original, though this is just a guess.

[DWLange]

My article on Seated Liberty artwork ran in the most recent issue of The Gobrecht Journal. It reproduces the images Roger described, but I had to scan them from earlier publications. This seems to have worked pretty well, though there's nothing like the original.

[WoodenJefferson]

Is there a United States Senator or a powerful Congressional delegate who is numismatically inclined or is a historian? You would not believe the doors someone of stature can open in the body of the US Government.

 

[RWB]

None as clear as William Ashbrook once was.

[MaximilianMike]

Thank you everyone. I am sorry I have been away from the forums for a little while. I will try and find the references you all have suggested.

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

[BillJones]

Okay I finally found book that led me to this painting, Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences. Samuel Jennings painted this piece in 1792 for the Library Company of Philadelphia. Given the date and the fact this piece was displayed in Philadelphia, I have suspected, but cannot prove that is was an inspiration for the Liberty Seated design. This piece was an early anti-slavery statement that was completed years before the movement gained national prominence.

 

Link to Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences

[RWB]

Ummm...See also:

 

Smith, Robert C. “Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences: A Philadelphia Allegory by Samuel Jennings,” Chicago: Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 2 (1965), pp. 84-105.

 

… they take the liberty of suggesting an Idea of Substituting the figure of Liberty (with her Cap and proper Insignia) displaying the arts by some of the most striking Symbols of Painting, Architecture, Mechanics, Astronomy &ca. whilst She appears in the attitude of placing on the top of a Pedestal, a pile of Books, lettered with, Agriculture, Commerce, Philosophy & Catalogue of Philadelphia Library. A Broken Chain under her feet, and in the distant back Ground a Group of Negroes sitting on the Earth, or in some attitude expressive of Ease & Joy. (Smith: p.89)

 

“In making this decision, the directors of the Library Company may have been influenced in the choice of Liberty by the presence in Philadelphia of an allegory of the "liberty and prosperity of America," which the English painter Robert Edge Pine had brought with him from London in 1784.” (Smith: p.89)

 

“…By suggesting that Negroes be included in their allegory, the directors of the Library Company—many of whom were members of the Society of Friends—revealed how keenly they sympathized with the movement to abolish slavery, which had begun in Quaker Philadelphia. It was there that Ralph Sandiford in 1729, Benjamin Lay in 1737, and Anthony Benezet in 1766 had published their attacks on slavery, and Thomas Paine in 1775 had demanded its abolition.” (Smith: p.90)

 

[disme]

This is a photograph of the original Seated Liberty artwork that hangs in the engraver’s office

at the Philadelphia Mint. (Taken by permission of Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro.)

 

The Seated Liberty design was based on the figure of Britannia found on British copper coins; a

set of these coins was furnished by Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson to artist Thomas Sully

in September 1835 as a guide in preparing the Seated Liberty design.

 

 

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[MaximilianMike]

Thank you for the information. The reason I asked the original question is that I have a family member who is an experienced painter and has commissioned several pieces of work in the past. I am looking for a sketch of some kind that is a little better defined than the actual coins themselves. (He is in his 90's and cant see well) My hopes and ambitions is that he would paint a potrait of seated liberty. These are all great leads and have certainly increased my knowledge on the subject. Thanks everyone.