Signed: “drawn by Louis Eckardt/Oct.30.1860″
Ink on paper
Ohio
16″ x 14” in a period but not original frame.
A skillful calligraphic drawing of a pair of “Mamoth” oxen drawn by Louis Eckardt in 1860.
In 1832 a remarkable animal was calved on the farm of Isaac Hubbard of New Hampshire. This “fat bullock” weighed just shy of 4,000 lbs. at age 6. The animal toured the country as the largest ox ever seen. Two years later the ox, now named Brother Jonathan, was shipped to England for exhibition there. The standing ox in this drawing is based on an earlier 1839 lithograph of Brother Jonathan published in England as a part of the celebratory tour of Brother Jonathan.
Not surprisingly, looking at the precision with which this drawing is executed, Louis Eckardt grew up to become an engineer in Columbus, Ohio .
