Rare 4.25 x 6.5 cabinet portrait of Jefferson Davis leaning on a chairback in a desirable full-length pose, signed in the lower border in ink, "Jeffer. Davis, Aug. 26th 1867.” Reverse bears an affixed transmittal note in another hand. In very good to fine condition, with rounded corners, and slight scuffing and silvering to the image. Encapsulated in a PSA/DNA authentication holder.
Though he harbored vain hopes of a future for the Confederacy in the weeks following Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Davis was eventually forced to abandon the CSA capital in Richmond, setting up a temporary headquarters in Danville and eventually fleeing Virginia altogether. Davis, along with several CSA cabinet members, was finally captured in Irwinsville, Georgia, by the Fourth Michigan cavalry on May 10, 1865. He was imprisoned for two years in Fort Monroe, Virginia, and was released two years later in May 1867 on a $100,000 bond raised by prominent supporters, including Horace Greeley and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Full-bodied images signed by Davis are seldom offered for sale, with this example all the more impressive given how he was released from prison just three months prior.
