Confederate wooden canteen attributed to Southern artist John Adams Elder 1833-1895. The painting is entitled "Bellona" after the cannon foundry on the James River above Richmond. The scene shows four heavy cannon mounted on a grassy hillside overlooking the river. The seven hills of Richmond are shown in the background along with a military camp, the Bell Island prisoner of war camp. John Elder served in the 38th Virginia Battalion Heavy Artillery during the war and was famous for painting portraits of Generals Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and the Battle of the Crater after the war. Private Elder's regiment saw heavy action serving in the army of Northern Virginia and at the battle Gettysburg suffered 8 killed and 3 wounded. In 1895 while painting a portrait of Jefferson Davis in Biloxi, Mississippi he contracted malaria and died. This exact canteen is pictured on page 66 in the book "Collecting the Confederacy" by Shannon Pritchard. The canteen is in excellent condition and measures 7 1/2 inches by 2 1/4 wide. There is one old scratch on the painted scene near the middle.

Item # km36

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