$4,750
Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000
A Grand Old Flag: The Stars and Stripes Collection of Dr. Peter J. Keim
Auction: November 24, 2019 1:00:00 PM EDT
Hand-sewn, double appliqued cotton stars arranged in a double wreath or medallion enclosing a single star and flanked by 4 corner stars on a two-part cotton canton, machine-sewn stripes, the upper star inscribed, "Made by Mary B. Lyon," stamped, "Mastai Collection," and inscribed, "No. 261."
62 in. x 79 in.Provenance: The Boleslaw and Marie-Louise d'Otrange Mastai Collection of American Flags and Related Patriotic and Political Memorabilia, Sotheby's, October 10, 2002, lot 102.
Literature: Kevin Keim & Peter Keim, A Grand Old Flag: A History of the United States Through its Flags (2007), 23.
Boleslaw and Marie-Louise d'Otrange Mastai, The Stars and the Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the Republic to the Present (1973), 148 & 149.
Note: Mary B. Lyon may have made this cotton Flag to commemorate an anniversary of Maine statehood, admitted March 15, 1820. She more likely made the Flag in the early years of the Civil War, 1861 or 1862, removing the 11 stars representing seceded states from the national number of 34.