Abraham Lincoln, Folk Art Portrait Painted on Violin Owned by Governor & General Isaac I. Stevens 

Violin, 23 in. long, featuring a painted portrait of Abraham Lincoln wearing a short beard. It has been suggested that the painting was produced around Lincoln's 1860 election or during the early part of the Civil War, and it could be one of a few known paintings of Lincoln created during his lifetime. The portrait is surrounded by a border of 21 stars that relate to the number of Northern States in the Union at the start of the war. West Virginia entered the Union in June of 1863, and Nevada in 1864. The weeping Liberty at the bottom of the painting could be weeping for the Union or for Lincoln's death.
 
The violin came from the family of Issac I. Stevens (1818-1862), the first Governor of Washington Territory, and Civil War General that died at the Battle of Chantilly on September 1, 1862. The painting descended through the Stevens family to Ruth Eskridge, who sold the estate's historical material to Bill McGreer in 1973. McGreer sold the violin to Portland Oregon dealer, Norm Moore, in the late 1970s, and it was purchased from Mr. Moore by the consignor in 2013. The painting on the violin was conserved by the Western Center for the Conservation of Fine Arts in Denver.

Some cracking to surface of portrait.