Surely no single artistic depiction of Emperor Norton has been reproduced more times, over a longer period, than the cameo “cut” of the Emperor that featured on the fronts of his various scrip between January 1871 and January 1880.
Although inked copies of the depiction appeared on some 3,000 of the Emperor's promissory notes over the course of 9 years, precious little can be said for certain about the original engraving — including who carved it.
In this exploration, we dig into various particulars of the two note printers of record — Cuddy & Hughes and Charles A. Murdock & Co. — and connect some dots that point to likely scenarios for (a) why and when the engraving was created; (b) what the model for the engraving was; and (c) how it was "stewarded" for 9 years.
Included here: A rarely seen — and very large — image of the earliest-extant Norton note from November 1870, including the Emperor's mostly-intact red wax seal.
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In June 1861, Emperor Norton issued a Proclamation against privateering — which basically was state-sanctioned piracy.
Recently, we discovered — or, more accurately, recovered — an image of the Emperor’s handwritten manuscript of the Proclamation that was published in a tiny magazine of California history in 1956. The print copy of the relevant issue of the magazine is at the San Francisco Public Library and was scanned and added to the Internet Archive in 2014.
We’ve not yet been able to determine whether the Proclamation was published. What seems clear, though: The existence of the Proclamation flew under the radar between 1861 and 1956; the publication of the manuscript in 1956 made little or no impression; and the Proclamation has continued to fly under the radar for the nearly 70 years since.
We’re delighted to be able to bring it back to the surface now.
One reason why this Proclamation is of interest: It offers a possible clue for explaining the still-undocumented claim that Emperor Norton called for a “League of Nations.”
Also included in this article: Details about the pioneer San Francisco bookseller Jefferson Martenet (1826–1906), whose preservation of the Norton manuscript in a personal scrapbook made it possible for us to find the manuscript in 2022.
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