Title: Lotos Club to Our Chauncey Feby 22nd 1896": An Original Gravure Serving As the Lotos Club Menu in Recognition of Chauncey Depew, Signed by Chauncey Depew.
Description: New York: E.C. Meinecke & Co. February 22nd, 1896. 1896. - An original 11 inch high by 7-1/2 inch wide gravure by E.C. Meinecke & Co. of New York on 15 inch high by 12 inch wide buff stock. The sienna toned image is a caricature of Chauncey Depew seated on a dock at Peekskill Landing, fishing pole in hand and a string of fish at his side. Shaded by a Chinese straw hat with his feet dangling from the dock, Depew is attired in a white button down shirt and capri-like pants. The menu's title "Lotos Club To Our Chauncey.." is illustrated with the image of Depew's mansion and a banner of a winged locomotive pulling a train above. Depew's fishing pole, with its line dipping into the lily pad pond at bottom left, diagonally crosses the menu's selection, while a train exiting a tunnel is depicted at bottom right. The menu, engraved along the bottom left quarter of the image, includes such offerings as Blue Points, Chicken consomme a la Royal, Timbales a la Depew, Kennebec Salmon, Asparagus a la Peekskill, etc. The artist's name is engraved at the bottom right of the image. We can only make out the artist's initials "G.S." due to damage to a portion of the name. The gravure is boldly signed "Chauncey M. Depew" in pencil across the top. Mounted with glue from the verso onto a slightly larger cardboard mat there is a tear along the right edge of the print's border with some minor chipping and three holes along the left edge. There is minor foxing with a small spot of dampstaining to the top of the right border. The top edge of the heavier mat on which the print is mounted is chipped. Good.
RARE. Provenance: From the estate of American impresario and Medal of Honor recipient Major James B. Pond.
The Lotos Club, with its literary and artistic bent hosted frequent "State Dinners" for which it produced elaborate souvenir menus.
At this dinner held in New York on February 22, 1896, Chauncey Depew delivered a speech on the occasion of Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays: ".. Lincoln attained from the log cabin of the poor white in the wilderness the same position which George Washington reached from his grand old mansion and palatial surroundings on the Potomac.. Widely as they are separated, these two heroes of the two great crises of our national life stand together in representing the solvent powers of the inspiring processes and the hopeful opportunities of American liberty. The one coming from the top to the Presidency and the other from the bottom to the Presidency of the United States, the leadership of the people, the building up of government and the reconstruction of states, they grandly illustrate the fact that under our institutions there is neither place nor time for the socialists or the anarchist, but there is a place and always a time, notwithstanding the discouragements of origin or of youth, for grit, pluck, ambition, honesty and brains".
The attorney for Cornelius Vanderbilt's railroad interests and president of the New York Central Railroad System, Chauncey Depew (1834-1928) served as U.S. Senator from New York from 1899 to 1911. After graduating from Yale, Depew was admitted to the bar in 1858 and first practiced law in Peekskill, NY. Moving to New York City, Depew first became the attorney for the New York and Harlem Railroad and subsequently for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad before he became the attorney and director of Vanderbilt's whole system. Depew served as president and served on the board of several railroad companies as well as of other businesses. Good .
Keywords: AMERICANA; CHAUNCEY DEPEW; LOTOS CLUB TO OUR CHAUNCEY; AN ORIGINAL GRAVURE PRINT FOR THE LOTOS CLUB MENU; NEW YORK; E.C. MEINECKEE & CO.; FEBRUARY 22, 1896; 19TH CENTURY; NINETEENTH CENTURY; SIGNED; SIGNATURE; AUTOGRAPH; ILLUSTRATED; ILLUSTRATION; ENG
- Book number: 98132
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