"Douglas & Johnson" 13-star printed campaign flag. Glazed cotton printed in red, blue and black. N.p., circa 1860. 17 1/2 in. x 11 3/4 in., presented in a fine antique parcel gilt rosewood framee (27 1/2 in. x 22 1/8 in.)

Provenance: Rexford "Rex" Addison Stark Collection (1947-2023)

A desirable and very rare Stephen Douglas (1813-1861) campaign flag from the 1860 presidential election. Douglas ran as the Democratic nominee with Herschel V. Johnson (1812-1880), who was opposed by President Lincoln, but also by the breakaway Southern Democratic nominee John C. Breckinridge, and Constitutional Union Party candidate John Bell. 

With a striking 13-star canton with a well-rendered black and white portrait of Douglas. Printed among the stripes, the likeness captures his stentatorian presence that earned him the sobriquet, "The Little Giant." The legend "DOUGLAS & JOHNSON" is printed below the portrait in a single line on one of the white stripes. A similar variant of the flag with the legend printed on three lines instead of one is published in Threads of History (no. 308). 

EXTREMELY RARE. We located no other copies of this flag. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Flags, Patriotic Textiles] [Abraham Lincoln, Politics, Mary Todd Lincoln, 1860 Election, Election of 1860, 1864 Election, Election of 1864,  Lincoln Assassination, John Wilkes Booth]

Not examined out of frame.