Rare pair of plaster cast hands of Abraham Lincoln with a bronze-like finish, likely dating to the late 19th century, produced from the first replica of the life-casts made by Leonard Volk after Lincoln's nomination to the presidency in 1860. Lincoln's right hand grasps a cylinder, while his left hand forms a gentle fist. Both are engraved on the base: "This cast of the hand of Abraham Lincoln was made from the first replica of the original made at Springfield, Ill. the Sunday following his nomination to the Presidency in 1860." In very good to fine condition, with some scattered surface flaking to the finish.
American sculptor Leonard Volk is remembered for making one of two life masks of Abraham Lincoln, which he later used as the basis for several well-known statues of the great president. In 1881, Volk published 'The Lincoln Life-Mask and How it was Made' in The Century Magazine, discussing the story of Lincoln's hands within the piece: 'I wished him to hold something in his right hand and he looked for a piece of pasteboard but could find none. I told him a round stick would do as well as anything. Thereupon he went to the woodshed and I heard the saw go, and he soon returned to the dining-room (where I did the work), whittling off the end of a piece of broom-handle. I remarked to him that he need not whittle off the edges. 'Oh, well,' said he, 'I thought I would like to have it nice. When I had successfully cast the mold of the right hand, I began the left, pausing a few moments to hear Mr. Lincoln tell me about a scar on the thumb. 'You have heard that they call me a rail-splitter…well, it is true that I did split rails, and one day, while I was sharpening a wedge on a log, the ax glanced and nearly took my thumb off, and there is the scar, you see.' The right hand appeared swollen as compared with the left on account of excessive hand-shaking the evening before; this difference is distinctly shown in the cast.'
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