JOHN GOOD GETTYSBURG SOUVENIR WOOD GAVEL: CULP’S HILL AND SEMINARY RIDGE

JOHN GOOD GETTYSBURG SOUVENIR WOOD GAVEL: CULP’S HILL AND SEMINARY RIDGE

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$1,250.00

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Item Code: 2026-9376

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John Good ran the “Gettysburg Battlefield Novelty Works” here in town from about 1895 to 1915. See “Gettysburg Battlefield Relics & Souvenirs, pages 286ff. for examples of his work, with several of his gavels illustrated on pp.288-289. A 1906 newspaper article emphasized that all his relics were genuine, made of wood cut on the battlefield. This one is unusual in using wood from two different locations on the battlefield, and a testimony to his honesty and methodological recording of the locations on the battlefield where he secured his materials.

Miniature monuments, pen holders, even miniature rocking chairs were among his offerings and his turned wood souvenirs included goblets, urns and gavels like this one, combining the historic, artistic and sometimes the functional, with gavels being both symbolic badges of office and useful in calling to order meetings of veterans, and others. One Gettysburg gavel was even used by the US Speaker of the House during 1932 hearings on War Department appropriations.

This one measures about 10” overall and is in excellent condition with a pleasing warm brown color and finish, with a delicately turned, contoured handle with three deep grooves cut near the end fastened to a robust head turned with wide raised rings around the ends and two pairs of raised rings with three grooves at the center. The head was stamped in black ink: “GETTYSBURG / JULY 1.2.3. 1863” between the two pairs of raised rings at center and below that, between the lower pair of raised rings and the wide ring around the striking head, also stamped in black ink is, “WOOD FROM / CULPS HILL.” The lower line of text has some slight wear, but is legible. The handle bears second ink stamp, also slightly worn from handling, but legible, reading: “WOOD FROM / SEMINARY RIDGE.”

Neither location will need any explanation to students of the battle. Culps Hill, in particular, would have been a good source of wood for Good and other similar souvenir makers . Brady’s post-battle photographs show the thick woods, with many of the trees very evidently struck by bullets.    [sr][ph:L]

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