Price
$24.95
Condition
used
Product Condition
Very fine
Size
5.5" x 3"
1871 Charleston South Carolina Reconstruction Era Illustrated Palm Tree Cover. An attractive and unusual Charleston, South Carolina illustrated cover dated 1871, featuring a finely detailed tropical landscape dominated by a large palmetto or palm tree, printed entirely in red. Beneath the vignette appears the straightforward caption “CHARLESTON, S.C. 1871.”
Although reminiscent of Civil War patriotic envelopes in format, this example dates from the Reconstruction era, only six years after the conclusion of the Civil War. The imagery is particularly appropriate to South Carolina, whose association with the palmetto had long been established and which had adopted the palmetto as a central element of its state flag.
Unused, allowing the handsome red engraving and dated Charleston identification to remain the focus of the cover.
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union in December 1860, and Charleston Harbor became the scene of the opening military engagement of the Civil War at Fort Sumter in April 1861. By 1871, when this envelope was produced, South Carolina remained under Reconstruction-era political and social transformation.
$24.95
used
Very fine
5.5" x 3"