Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection(TREAT, SAMUEL)The following Elegiac Lines were occasioned by the Death of Capt. Treat, of the American Artillery, who unfortunately fell, in defence of the injured rights of his Country, Nov. 1777, at Fort Mifflin, Mud-Island, on the River Delaware, when attacked by a British Fleet and Army. Broadside printed on silk, 4-line title and 19 quatrains set in two columns (12 3/8 x 9 1/8 in.; 316 x 233 mm); a few light stains, some spots of wear occasionally costing a letter. Framed and glazed. The consignor has independently obtained a letter of authenticity from PSA that will accompany the lot. An exceptionally rare—possibly unique—commemorative silk broadside on the death of Captain Samuel Treat, who was killed "in defence of the injured rights of his Country." Treat was killed during the Siege of Fort Mifflin, in the Delaware River, by British land and naval forces commanded, respectively, by Captain John Montresor and Vice Admiral Lord Richard Howe. The Continentals held the fort for nearly two months, but finally abandoned it on November 16, 1777, when they could no longer withstand the British bombardment. This key victory allowed the British to hold Philadelphia until June 1778. Treat, who had begun his service with a Boston militia company and was present at Bunker Hill, had been killed on November 11. According to The Treat Family: A Genealogy of Trott, Tratt, and Treat by John Harvey Treat (Salem, 1893), page 223, "Dr. John Brown Cutting, a friend of the family, an army surgeon, and … a subscriber to a dancing assembly at Morristown, in 1780, wrote some verses in honor of Capt. Treat, which were printed on white satin and hung in a glazed frame for many years in the house of his sister in Haverhill, Mass. They are now in the possession of Miss Elizabeth Adams, of Quincy, Mass." Cutting (1755–1831) served during the Revolution as an apothecary in the Hospital Department. John Harvey Treat's language is frustratingly ambiguous, but he clearly implies that there was only a single copy of this elegy printed. And if the poem was composed in 1780 and printed shortly thereafter, then it is also likely it is the very first American broadside printed on silk or cloth. This broadside is not in Herbert Ridgeway Collins's Threads of History (Smithsonian, 1979), which cites only four items probably printed prior to 1780.Condition ReportCondition as described in catalogue entry. The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The
Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection(TREAT, SAMUEL)The following Elegiac Lines were occasioned by the Death of Capt. Treat, of the American Artillery, who unfortunately fell, in defence of the injured rights of his Country, Nov. 1777, at Fort Mifflin, Mud-Island, on the River Delaware, when attacked by a British Fleet and Army. Broadside printed on silk, 4-line title and 19 quatrains set in two columns (12 3/8 x 9 1/8 in.; 316 x 233 mm); a few light stains, some spots of wear occasionally costing a letter. Framed and glazed. The consignor has independently obtained a letter of authenticity from PSA that will accompany the lot. An exceptionally rare—possibly unique—commemorative silk broadside on the death of Captain Samuel Treat, who was killed "in defence of the injured rights of his Country." Treat was killed during the Siege of Fort Mifflin, in the Delaware River, by British land and naval forces commanded, respectively, by Captain John Montresor and Vice Admiral Lord Richard Howe. The Continentals held the fort for nearly two months, but finally abandoned it on November 16, 1777, when they could no longer withstand the British bombardment. This key victory allowed the British to hold Philadelphia until June 1778. Treat, who had begun his service with a Boston militia company and was present at Bunker Hill, had been killed on November 11. According to The Treat Family: A Genealogy of Trott, Tratt, and Treat by John Harvey Treat (Salem, 1893), page 223, "Dr. John Brown Cutting, a friend of the family, an army surgeon, and … a subscriber to a dancing assembly at Morristown, in 1780, wrote some verses in honor of Capt. Treat, which were printed on white satin and hung in a glazed frame for many years in the house of his sister in Haverhill, Mass. They are now in the possession of Miss Elizabeth Adams, of Quincy, Mass." Cutting (1755–1831) served during the Revolution as an apothecary in the Hospital Department. John Harvey Treat's language is frustratingly ambiguous, but he clearly implies that there was only a single copy of this elegy printed. And if the poem was composed in 1780 and printed shortly thereafter, then it is also likely it is the very first American broadside printed on silk or cloth. This broadside is not in Herbert Ridgeway Collins's Threads of History (Smithsonian, 1979), which cites only four items probably printed prior to 1780.Condition ReportCondition as described in catalogue entry. The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
