Temperance Banner: Love, Purity, Fidelity by Kelloggs & Comstock

This hand-colored print of an outdoor scene depicts two women standing on either side of a young man. The woman on the right is dressed in red, holding the young man's arm, and appears to be tempting him with a glass of wine. A snake or serpent emerges from a pot on the right, behind the woman in red reinforcing the image of the woman in red as aligned with evil. The young man holds a water goblet in his right hand while a young woman in white looks on from the left side of the print. The scene is enclosed in a Gothic border, produced during the Gothic Revival period, and has a banner below the image that proclaims “Love, Purity, & Fidelity.”

This print was produced by the lithographic firm of Kelloggs & Comstock in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1848, John Chenevard Comstock (1818-1862) formed a partnership with E.B. and E.C. Kellogg. In 1850, Edmund Burke Kellogg (1809-1872) left the firm, leaving his brother Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811-1881) and J.C. Comstock to run the lithography firm as Kellogg and Comstock. The short-lived partnership disbanded in 1851. It was not until 1855 that Edmund Burke Kellogg rejoined his brother E.C. Kellogg and continued the successful operation of the family’s lithography firm. The print was distributed by D. Needham of New York City. Nathaniel Currier produced a similar print.

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