[Currier & Ives]:

$950 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

THE LITTLE ZOUAVE. "UP BOYS AND AT THEM" [caption title]. A rare Currier & Ives lithograph from the first year of the Civil War. The print depicts a little boy waving a Union flag and dressed in the garb of a Zouave, the French light infantry units popularized in America by Elmer E. Ellsworth. No fewer than seventy volunteer Zouave regiments were a part of the Union army during the war, and their characteristic North African-inspired uniforms and unusual light infantry tactics would have made them immediately recognizable to the American public. This is one of at least 180 "little" portraits printed by Currier and Ives, and one of a number of wartime prints showing children dressed in the garb of their fathers in the army. The Currier & Ives Catalogue Raisonné records a single copy, at the Library of Congress. We otherwise locate the print only at the New-York Historical Society, and trace only two other copies at auction. Not on OCLC. A vibrant and moving image in support of the Union cause early in the Civil War.

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