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American Naval Victories. Glorious & Brilliant Victory Obtained by Commodore O. H. Perry Over the British Fleet On Lake Erie Commanded by Cap. Barclay.

New York: Published by J. Tiebout No. 238 Water St. December 1813. Printed by Riley & Adams 23 Chatham St. Hand-colored engraving, 16” x 13.25” plus margins. Color retouched. CONDITION: Good, some soiling, occasional small losses to printed area expertly reinstated, other minor surface loss, thin areas reinforced on verso with paper pulp, small losses to margins reinstated with paper pulp, backed with Japanese tissue.

An apparently unrecorded War of 1812 broadside, featuring a series of vignettes depicting American naval victories, evidently published in response to Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory on Lake Erie in September of 1813, an image of which takes pride of place at the top. 

Included here are twelve vignettes, ten of which show battles in progress, most depicting cannons firing, masts falling, and ships foundering. Each battle vignette is captioned, with the date of the action provided. Among the subjects portrayed are the U.S. Frigate Constitution under Capt. Hull capturing the Frigate Guerrier commanded by Capt. Dacres, August 19th, 1812; the Constitution setting fire to the Guerrier, August 19th, 1812; Commodore Macdonough’s victory on Lake Champlain, September 11th, 1814; the U. S. Frigate United States capturing the Macedonian, October 25th, 1812; the Constitution taking the Java, December 29th, 1812, and others. The vignettes in the lower left and right corners represent a single action: on the left the Brig Enterprize is shown firing toward the partially dismasted Boxer pictured on the right.

Between two vignettes in the central column are verses reading:

Columbia’s Sons__the Scenes you see
Are Facts you’ll hand posterity
Britains Opression forcd the way,
Our tars to Arms with speed obey;
They fear no Death, their Rights to gain
And wave the Eagle o’er the Main.
There’s Hull, Decatur, lawrence brave
And Bainbridge, fought our Rights to save,
Macdonough, Porter, Warrington,
Perry and Jones have Glory won;
A Burrows too, their Ghosts can say
We fought and bled for America!

Commander James Lawrence’s famous last words, “Don’t Give up the Ship,” appear beneath a vignette of the spoils of war at the bottom of the central column, adding a final and triumphant note of defiance.

Publisher John Tiebout (1772?-1826) published at least three War of 1812 broadsides entitled American Naval Victories. An almost equally rare variant of the present engraving, a school sheet with a largely blank central column for the display of penmanship, is illustrated in both Irving Olds’s Bits and Pieces of American History and Edgar Newbold Smith’s American Naval Broadsides. Olds also pictures and describes a school sheet with eight entirely different vignettes, although representing many of the same subjects including Perry’s victory at the top. All of these broadsides are quite rare.

Not in OCLC, Olds, or Smith, nor do we find any trace of it online.

REFERENCES: Olds 251 and Smith 128, both for the variant.

A rare and captivating War of 1812 broadside.

Item #8069

On Hold

Price: $25,000.00