Identified Civil War Soldier Carte de Visite & Pin
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GUEST:
I found these things in my great-grandfather's bureau when I were cleaning out the house. There was a name on the back of the picture, Joseph Merrick. Joseph was my great-great-grandmother's brother, so my great-great-great-uncle. I found out that he was in the Civil War, and that he was, uh was actually wounded in battle, and he, and he's buried at Arlington. This pin was with it. It has his name in the center, and it has all of the battles that his regiment, where they were at the time.
APPRAISER:
You have-- you called it a photograph. It's actually, over here, called a CDV…
GUEST:
Hmm.
APPRAISER:
…which stands for carte de visite. And those were images done around the 1860s into the 1870s. Soldiers loved to do those as mementos, send them to the family.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Almost like a calling card, in a way.
GUEST:
Hm.
APPRAISER:
So on the back, it is identified in pencil. It says "Joseph Merrick." And it says "Rahway, New Jersey."
GUEST:
Yeah, that's where he's from.
APPRAISER:
Uh, and he was a member of the Company A, First New Jersey Volunteers. It's a wonderful image of Joseph Merrick. What's important is, A, it's identified, so we know who it is, the soldier it is.
GUEST:
Mm.
APPRAISER:
Uh, the jacket he's wearing was not a regular issue jacket. It's a private purchase jacket, and you can tell by the larger pocket on the side. And his cap has a corps badge, which also is terrific, because it also helps identify which regiment or which corps he was a member of.
GUEST:
Mm.
APPRAISER:
On this side of the pairing, we have a really, really nice Civil War pin. I'm going to call it a mourning pin...
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
...because it was probably something given to someone in the family-- maybe a widow.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Maybe a mom, maybe a family member.
GUEST:
Probably mom.
APPRAISER:
Basically, at the center, as you had said, it says "Joseph Merrick, Company A, First New Jersey Volunteers." And around this beautiful-looking floral decoration, which is super-unusual-- I mean, I've honestly never seen one, and colleagues I spoke to about it have never seen that particular kind of formation...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...it lists all the battles he participated in, including Gettysburg, Bull Run. They were in Manassas. So, very important battles. So he was in the Army of the Potomac. At auction, a CDV like this, identified, with that great image of the coat and the corps badge, is probably in the $250 to $350 range.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
The pin itself I would estimate at auction between $3,000 and $4,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh, wow.
APPRAISER:
So if you wanted to put them together, possibly at auction as a pair, $3,500 to $4,500 would be a fair estimate.
GUEST:
Wow, that's very surprising.
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