1888 Benjamin Harrison Enameled Bar Pin Copper DeWitt Unlisted

A campaign bar pin for Benjamin Harrison in 1888, wider and longer than the run of studs and buttons from that canvass. Copper, worked in red, white and blue enamel over gilt. HARRISON runs the length of the central red bar in raised gilt letters, with an ornament at each end. A blue lobe above carries a spread eagle between two stars; a white lobe below carries the date 1888. The pin and catch on the reverse are original and intact. Not listed in DeWitt. Enameled Harrison pieces of this bar form are much less often seen than the round studs, and the three-colour treatment across two lobes and a bar took more work than most campaign jewelry of the period was given. The enamel is largely present with the losses and darkening usual on a worn piece, heaviest in the red field. Much of the gilt survives in the lettering and around the borders.