A Sketchy Mystery

 I find myself apologizing once again for the state of this blog.  Here we are in the throws of summer and nary a post about my garage sale adventures.  Rest assured, I've been at it weekend in and weekend out and treasures(?) have been found. I just haven't taken time to write about any.  So let me start off this summer with this freebie I found a few weeks ago.

This was in the free pile at a local garage sale.  At first, I thought it was a charcoal-enhanced photo, but upon closer examination, I found it was a pencil sketch. Dig those mutton chops.

The artist is H. Feltmeier and it's dated 1892.  I asked the owner if they knew who it was, but they didn't know anything about it.  I felt a challenge to identify either the artist or the person in the sketch, so I took it.

Written on the back in ballpoint pen, clearly at a much later date than original, is "Richard Eckert".  I'm not sure if that's who is in the drawing or for some reason someone wrote a random name on the back. 

I searched Ancestry for both names to no avail.  I even posted to a "Family Treasures Lost & Found" Facebook page, but the only recommendation I got was there are Eckert's across the river in Illinois that have orchards (which I was already aware of).

So for now, I put this out in the swirling cesspool information highway that is the internet on the off chance some relative searches on their names.

Worst case, I have another picture to hang up for Halloween this year.