In the annals of 20th century gun collecting, the most iconic name was that of Norm Flayderman. Norm was a gentleman of the highest regard, a consummate professional, a distinguished scholar and author, and a business man extraordinaire. His reference books, sales catalogs, and highly renowned price guide were legendary, but of equal importance was his extraordinary intellect and "eye." Norm had excellent taste and a panoramic expanse of interests. He had the uncanny ability to distinguish the good from the bad and the extraordinary from the very good. He knew the importance of not selling things "before their time" and over the years made it a point to amass and quietly and confidentially hold certain items and collections until the ideal time. One of these collections which Norm had was of Civil War Recruitment posters.

As told by Brian Resnick in his 2011 article on such posters: "One hundred fifty years ago, the Civil War began and the fighting was brutal. Nearly 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers lost their lives-more Americans than in both World Wars combined. The armies needed men to refill rapidly declining ranks and used recruitment advertisements such as these as a means to find them. Like the posters in later wars, the propaganda used patriotic effigies such as Lady Liberty to entice recruits.

But in contrast with the inspiring messages from the 20th century, the text of these posters is much more blunt. The sentiment "Don't wait to be drafted" fills a line on almost every flyer. Those who enlisted received a bounty for their troubles, sometimes totaling several hundred dollars. Those who did not faced possible conscription. This, of course, led to the occupation of bounty jumping, in which men would sign up, collect the cash, desert the army, and repeat the process. Congress later outlawed bounties in 1917 with the Selective Service Act." Unlike in the Confederacy, there was never a true manpower shortage for the North as it was a major hub for European immigration into the United States. The ports of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston all served as entry points for the first major wave of European immigration that began in the 1840s. During this period up through the end of the Civil War, the two largest groups of immigrants entering these ports were the Germans and the Irish. This can be seen in one of the examples in Flayderman's collection which makes a direct call to immigrants, specifically the Irish & German population informing them that they have a few regiments they can chose from.

This fine collection of 12 Civil War Recruitment posters will be sold in our August 2014 Fine Art, Asian & Antiques Auction.

Sprague Light Cavalry Recruitment Poster