[Advertising Broadside] Republican House / Simon Baum, Proprietor. / Cor. of 2d South & Illinois Sts. - Belleville, Ill.
N.d., s.i. [Belleville,IL: ca 1885-1895]. Original printed advertising placard with mounted albumen photograph. Printed in black on tan card-stock, approximately 25cm x 20cm (10" x 8"), with original photgraphic view, 4-1/4" x 6-3/4", mounted above printed area. Very Good, with slight frame-burn at margins and verso, with a few tiny losses to mount margins; small (1/2") loss to photograph at upper left corner, away from image. An excellent example, and scarce – both specifically (with no recorded copies in commerce or institutional holdings) – and generically; given their cost, few such photographically-illustrated broadsides were produced, and very few have survived.
Simon Baum's "Republican House" appears to have been one of Belelville's most prominent public houses in the years following the Civil War. He appears to have become the proprietor after marrying the daughter of the hotel's original owner, Chas. Spies, around 1885. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, by 1895 Baum had moved on to open his own saloon about three miles outside the city limits, supplying our date range for this broadside.
Price: $850.00