Counterstamps

H.A. BALCH / ARTIST / JOLIET, IL. on an 1853 Liberty Seated quarter. Brunk B-186, Rulau-ILL 109A. Fine-12 (NGC).

H.A. Balch (b.1824) was a daguerreotypist in Memphis, Tennessee after moving to Joliet, Illinois. In Tennessee, he operated H.A. Balch's Star Photographic Gallery, located at 221 Main St., specializing in Civil War subjects including Ulysses S. Grant and General William Tecumseh Sherman. At some point his studio was located at 249 & 251 Main Street. Balch operated his own gallery except for a short period of time when he was in partnership with Robert Peplow at 221 Main Street in Memphis. His Joliet counterstamps were likely issued to advertise his move to Illinois. Balch was born in Madison, Ohio, Sept. 11, 1824. On June 4, 1850, he married Martha A. Curtis of Joliet, Ill. He was educated at Madison Academy and Kirkland Institute, where in 1844 he had charge of the classes in chemistry and penmanship. In 1846, he took up daguerreotyping and went south. In 1849, he settled in Joliet. His pictures won premiums wherever exhibited. He traveled through Kentucky and Tennessee from 1859 until war broke out, and then settled in Cairo, IL. Soon after the capture of Memphis, he opened a gallery there and remained until 1869, when he bought one thousand acres of land in Arkansas. He tried farming there for three years, but his crops were destroyed by drought and cattle. He then engaged in photography in Hot Springs, Ark., and was burned out in the great fire of 1879. In 1880, he received an appointment in the census bureau in Washington, D. C, and from 1882 onward, was a clerk in the Pension Bureau. This a nice example of this popular and well known stamp.

From the Steve M. Tompkins Collection.

Estimate: $ 250