20th Maine 'Reunion Banner' Is A Modern Creation
By Deborah Fitts
January 2005

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Amid a flurry of congratulatory publicity in November, a unique banner celebrating the 1889 reunion of the 20th Maine Infantry at Little Round Top was added to the museum collection at Gettysburg National Military Park.

Only now it seems the banner is only two years old.

At the request of the park, the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg raised the $10,500 purchase price and acquired the supposed relic. They heralded the acquisition in a Nov. 2 press release, asserting that the banner "hung at Gettysburg" on Oct. 3, 1889, during the dedication by Union Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the monument to the renowned 20th Maine Infantry.

The banner, featuring red 5th Corps badges and a painted scene of Little Round Top, "retains its original hanging bar with brass finials and remains in fine, original condition," the Friends stated.

Park Superintendent John Latschar said in the release that the park was "truly fortunate to be able to add this important artifact to its collection." He added, "This is one of the first reunion banners that we have ever seen, and its close-to-pristine condition makes it even more valuable."

But commercial artist Jim Compratt, 58, of CaÒon City, Colo., said he made the banner in October 2002. He sold it the following month to the Americana Workshop in Kennebunk, Maine, for around $150. He said it took him about three hours to complete the 27-by-42-inch standard.

"It's a fantasy product," said Compratt. A library book on Gettysburg gave him the idea.

Somewhere in the banner's odyssey from Compratt's workshop to the battlefield museum, it was taken for the real thing. Cynthia Hamilton of the Americana Workshop said she sold it for around $300 to another Maine dealer.

"It wasn't here more than a day or two, and out it went," said Hamilton, who for six years has been purchasing Compratt's pieces for resale. "The first person that looked at it bought it. It was just beautiful."

The banner went through several hands, eventually selling for $6,050 at auction in Newcastle, Maine, in August 2003. By then it was purported to have come from the closing of a GAR hall. The buyer, a Massachusetts dealer, put it on consignment with antiques dealer David Hillier of Antique Associates in West Townsend, Mass.

Hillier advertised it in the nationally respected Maine Antique Digest. That's when the banner caught the eye of Greg Goodell, supervisor of museum services at the park. As often happens when a unique Gettysburg item comes up for sale, the park contacted the Friends and asked the nonprofit to buy it. (Goodell declined comment for this story.)

Hillier, who enjoys a stellar reputation in the field, said he was "absolutely mortified" when he learned the banner was not authentic.

"This bothers me terribly," said Hillier. He offered to refund the Friends' money within minutes of hearing the news. "I've been selling antiques for 30-plus years, and we see fakes all the time. But this thing bamboozled a lot of people. It was just incredible - the crackle, the toning, and the guy [Compratt] knows history. The artist should have signed and dated the piece."

In their press release, the Friends named nearly a dozen donors who put up money for the banner. Among them were Civil War historian Noah Andre Trudeau and Barbara Finfrock, the chair of the Friends and their acting executive director.

When it comes to judging authenticity, "We don't pretend to be authorities," said Finfrock. "We were told by the park it was something they'd like to have. I have to put my trust in the park. We're very careful of our members' and our donors' money. We will certainly make it up to them."

Finfrock predicted that "one mistake" among "thousands" of artifact purchases would not adversely affect future donations to her organization. "They will say we are very fine people because we looked into it, and gave their money back if it was wrong," she said.

Among all involved, the park alone withheld judgment on the banner's authenticity despite overwhelming evidence that it was Compratt's handiwork. At presstime in mid-December, more than three weeks after being tipped off, the park was still awaiting the results of paint testing by a laboratory in Delaware.

In a statement, however, Superintendent John Latschar apologized to the Friends "for any inconvenience." He said park experts "found visible signs of age and a good chain of custody that included a highly reputable dealer, and a number of well-known experts in the fields of antiques and Americana."

Latschar also asserted that since the money would be refunded, "There will be no harm done."

Park officials first learned there was a problem on Monday, Nov. 22, when they opened an e-mail from a friend of Hamilton's - another antique dealer, Brian Strack of BRS Militaria in Kennebunkport, Maine. When he got no reply from the park or the Friends, Strack alerted the Portland Press Herald in Maine that the banner was new, and the story became public.

"What ticked me off was that no one responded," said Strack, 44, who has been collecting Civil War memorabilia since he was 8 and reenacts with the 5th New York, Duryee's Zouaves. "I didn't want to see them get stuck with a fake item. This hurts them. It's kind of embarrassing."

Lawhon said, however, that the park took Strack's assertion seriously. "Greg Goodell and his staff took another careful look at the banner," and had two conservators from Texas and Virginia who are restoring the Cyclorama painting study it. They recommended the paint analysis.

"We are extremely grateful to the Friends for funding this," Lawhon said. "We thought it was a significant artifact that dealt with a regiment that the public has a lot of affection for. We didn't want to pass up the opportunity to get it." She added, "There are certainly going to be some lessons learned."

Compratt said a hobby that he started in 1973 became serious six or seven years ago. Since then, with his wife Naomi, he has turned out hundreds of old-fashioned signs and banners at his home-based Stray Horse Studio, advertising "museum-quality Americana."

The 20th Maine item was his first Civil War reunion banner. He used a piece of $1.99-a-yard muslin, covering it with a background of black acrylic paint from Wal-Mart. He added oils for an image of Little Round Top and Devil's Den and metallic paint for the lettering. Naomi sewed the hems with a modern sewing machine.

The Compratts hung the fringed banner on a wooden dowel tipped with small gilded-wood turnings. They branded the dowel with their Stray Horse Studio logo.

Naomi Compratt noted that when the Friends bought the banner, the dowel had apparently been replaced and real brass finials added - suggesting that someone wanted to deceive the next buyer.

"We were just flabbergasted" when Cindy Hamilton called to say the Portland Press Herald had a story about the purchase by the Friends, Naomi Compratt said. The front-page article included a large photo of the Compratts' handiwork.

"All I heard my husband say was, 'Oh my God, that's my banner,'" she said.

She added that although the park had supposedly undertaken an investigation, "The museum has never called us. We don't know if they're embarrassed."

"I'm not an antique expert by any means," said Jim Compratt, "but it wouldn't be hard to determine" the age of the banner. Still, this isn't the first time one of his pieces fooled someone. He said a year ago an old-fashioned sign that he painted, "Red Sox Game Today," landed on eBay two months later for sale for $5,000.

Hamilton, of the Americana Workshop, expressed surprise that the banner had been taken for the real thing. "If you take your index finger and wet it with your tongue and rub the paint, it will come off," she said. "That would be a 60-second test. Also, you can tell a modern sewing machine."

Clayton Pennington, editor of the Maine Antique Digest, said that reputations would recover from the incident. "This is not the first time a fake has worked its way into the marketplace," he said. "It happens. You really depend in large part on the seller, and from what I understand, Hillier guaranteed it to be old."

Sam Small, co-owner of the Horse Soldier relic shop in Gettysburg, said the park may have acted too quickly for fear of losing the banner, and may have relied too heavily on the reputations of the dealers involved.

"If I had any questions, I probably would have sent it to [textile expert] Fonda Thomsen," said Small, whose shop has been in business since 1971. "It's probably embarrassing for the individuals involved. But I'm not blaming anyone, especially here in Gettysburg. You've got the park's new museum coming, and you're excited, and that's good. You want the item to be real. I can see how it can happen."