CLASSIC EDWARD WOODWARD GETTYSBURG RELIC DESK DISPLAY

CLASSIC EDWARD WOODWARD GETTYSBURG RELIC DESK DISPLAY

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$2,950.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 2025-3678

This is an excellent example of the Gettysburg desk display sold by Edward Woodward here in town, made from relics picked up on the battlefield. Born in England, Woodward was a gunsmith working in Baltimore when the war started and turned down offers to superintend gun manufacture for the Confederacy. He moved to Gettysburg in 1863 to aid the Christian Commission in the wake of the battle, stayed in town, and seems to have been selling relics to visitors here as early as 1865. He is well known for his engraved cannonballs but apparently created these desk displays as early as 1866, one example bearing a period notation that it had been purchased here in September of that year. For further details and examples of his work see especially Gettysburg Battlefield Relics & Souvenirs (a quite wonderful book loaded with excellent photos,) pages 293ff. A similar set, using a cross-hatched panel on the lower front of the wood base is shown on page 297.

This uses Woodward’s characteristic droop-wing eagle prominently placed at center, astride a round ball, atop a gnarled wood block likely cut from a tree on the battlefield. (He used an eagle in other poses, but the droop-wing style is particularly recognizable.) At left Woodward mounted an iron canister shot, with three Minie balls to its right- one bottom up, the other apparently stained red or brown, and a third set so as to appear exiting the block of wood at center and positioned the broken tip of a triangular bayonet point-up. To the right of the wood, he set two iron shell fragments, one small and one large, with a Minie ball point down in the wood, its flat bottom likely indicating a Williams cleaner bullet. The canister shot at left is engraved “Gettysburg / 1863” and the shell fragment at right is engraved “Wolf Hill” in script, with flourishes to the initial letters, giving a more precise find-location for the relics. Some of Woodward’s creations bear handwritten descriptions on the wood base or on paper labels glued to them. We see no sign of either on this one. The wood base has a slightly rounded upper edge and corners of the front, with the cross-hatched panel in the lower half. The wood has a pleasing light brown color and finish showing just some minor rubs or stains. Please see our photos.

After Woodward died in 1894 both John Good and Joel Danner marketed similar creations, but they often seem more rigidly planned in their layout and lack something of Woodward’s spirit. Woodward’s creations are collectible in their own right as folk-art, but they have a special appeal in carrying relics of the battle often taken home by the veterans themselves as mementos of the greatest experience of their lives.  [sr][ph:L]

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