I was on the Internets last night perusing facebook, and I stopped short, because I had noted a GOP political ribbon for the Dakota’s I had never seen before that belongs in my collection of South Dakota Republican Convention ribbons.
And I missed buying/bidding on it, when it had sold only 4 days before. Aaarrrghh…
In 30 years of collecting, I have never seen this before. “Territorial Republican Convention, Watertown, Dakota 1888.” And in very, very nice condition as well. That is just beautiful.
The downside? Harrison and Morton. Because it’s a jugate ribbon.
– From Wikipedia; jugate consists of two portraits side by side to suggest, to the viewer, the closeness of each to the other. 3 portraits are a trigate piece. And there’s a couple valuable SD versions out there.
The presidential and vice-presidential candidate portraits (they won that year) make it an expensive item especially coming from a sparsely populated territory. Darn it.
It went for $700 which is waaay up there for a SD textile piece, and it’s the presidential portraits which make it a national level – and expensive – collectible. I’ve bought most of my SD convention ribbons for well under $100, as they’re such a niche item, and more people are into buttons than ribbons, which actually came before the invention of buttons.
An 1888 Dakota Territory convention ribbon would have looked darned nice along with my other convention ribbons that I’ve collected over the years.
Some look like the day the ink was stamped onto silk. Others have taken a tougher path into my collection of South Dakota related campaign textiles. I manage to chase down one or two of these every few years. They’re a hard find, but they’re out there, scattered to the wind waiting to come home to South Dakota and my collection.
More fun than finally getting that piece is the chase for it.
But now that I know that it’s out there and exists – the hunt it on!
Great item and collection!