HISTORICAL PRINTS AND ORIGINAL ART
Here are some of our historical prints and original art,
listed chronologically, available for purchase:
A Doolittle Copper Engraving
Amos Doolittle. The Triumph of David after having slain the Giant Golioth (sic) the great Champion of the philistine Army. (New York: William Durell, 1794). Copper engraving. 16.25” x 10”. VG, with foxing to the margins. $300
This copper engraving by the important early American etcher, Amos Doolittle of New Haven, Connecticut, is one of fourteen he did for Durell’s American edition of George Henry Maynard’s Flavius Josephus: The Genuine and Complete Works of Flavius Josephus, published in 1794. The engraving depicts the diminutive David exhibiting the head of Goliath on a pike to the amazement of the Isrealites. The beautiful line work of this print testifies to Doolittle’s reputation as one of America’s foremost artists on copper.
J. P. Butts. Saratoga Springs [New York] (Hartford: D. W. Kellogg, 1830s) Hand-colored lithograph. 10.25” x 13.25”. Backed with acid-free paper. VG, with restoration of the margins. $400
When this view was produced, Saratoga Springs was almost as new as was the firm that produced the print. Established in 1819, the village was incorporated in 1826. This view was most certainly drawn within ten years of that date. Perhaps it was executed in 1832 to celebrate the inauguration of rail service on the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad. D. W. Kellogg’s firm purportedly dates from 1830, but no one actually knows the date of his first lithograph. This print bears all of the characteristics of Kellogg’s earliest work: relatively small size, relatively simple composition, and minimal indicia. We think this is the first separately published view of the town.
Jackson and Van Buren Bring on Ruin
E. W. Clay. New Edition of MacBeth. Bank-Oh’s! Ghost. (New York: H. R. Robinson, 1837) Lithograph. 10.5” x 17.25”. VG, foxing. Trimmed. Mounted on card stock. $2,000
This is one of several spirited satires issued by the Clay-Robinson team on the Panic of 1837, condemning Van Buren and Jackson’s hard-money policies as the source of the crisis. Clay shows the president haunted by the ghost of Commerce, which is seated at the far right end of a table which he shares with a southern planter (far left) and a New York City Tammany Democrat. Commerce has been strangled by the Specie Circular, an extremely unpopular order issued by the Jackson administration in December 1836, requiring collectors of public revenues to accept only gold or silver (i.e., “specie”) in payment for public lands. The ghost displays a sheaf of papers, including one marked “Repeal of the Specie Circular,” and notices of bank failures in New Orleans, Philadelphia, and New York. Van Buren recoils at the sight of the specter, exclaiming, “Never shake thy gory locks at me, thou can’st not say I did it.” Jackson, in a bonnet and dress made of bunting, turns away saying, “Never mind him gentlemen, the creature’s scared, and has some conscience left; but by the Eternal we must shake that out of him.” Worldcat locates only four public holdings.
[J. C. Wild] Market Street, from Front Street. (Philadelphia: J. T. Bowen, 1840) Lithograph. Image: 5” x 6.75”. Sheet 9.5” x 12.75”. Near fine. $300
This lithograph is one of twenty based on watercolor paintings by J. C. Wild and published by J. T. Bowen, first in 1838 and then in 1840 under the title “Views of Philadelphia and its Vicinity.” “Market Street” depicts the front street terminus of the so-called New Jersey Market, named for its central location to the ferries from New Jersey, the city’s main provider of farm produce. The scene includes several marketers and pedestrians, including African Americans, strolling the streets and sidewalks, around and under the distinctive market shed topped with cupola and clock. Built in 1822, the market operated until the abolition of street markets in the city in 1859.
Henry Clay Predicts the Worst for his Democratic Party Opponents
A Peep into Futurity, or, A Picture of 1841. (New York: H. R. Robinson, 1838) Lithograph. 10.5” x 18.5’. Near fine. Small “microfilmed” stamp to lower right corner. $1,500
Whig publisher Henry Robinson published this cartoon in 1838 (I think it is in his hand, but that’s just an educated guess}. It shows Whig leader Henry Clay predicting bleak futures for Democratic party leaders ex-President Jackson, Senator Benton of Missouri, and President Van Buren. It wasn’t as dire as Clay hoped, but he was correct that Van Buren would lose his campaign for re-election. It is curious that Clay’s predictions did not include his installation as President. This was Clay’s (and Robinson’s) most fervent wish for more than two decades.
Karl Bodmer. Encampment of Piekann Indians Near Fort MacKenzie. (Philadelphia: Rice and Clark, 1842). Hand-colored lithograph. 15” x 19.5”. VG with repaired tear to sky. $1,000
This fine image is by the Swiss-French artist Karl Bodmer (1809-1893). From 1832 to 1834 he accompanied the German explorer Prince Maximilian on his expedition up the Missouri River. Upon his return to France, Bodmer had eighty-one aquatints made from his drawings. They were later included in Maximilian Prince of Wied’s Travels in the Interior of North America (1839-1841 in German/ 1843-1844 in English). This print, published in Philadelphia before the English edition of the book appeared, depicts a bustling military camp of the nomadic Piekann Indians near Fort McKenzie, Montana. Worldcat tells us that the Library of Congress has the only holding, but the Amon-Carter Museum of Fort Worth has a copy as well. It should be noted that the scholarship surrounding this print is confused. Some institutions, auction houses, and print dealers attribute the print to the McKinney and Hall series (which it is not). Bodmer himself published this image in France in 1839; this 1842 printing is its first American appearance.
T. W. Dorr, Inaugurated Governor of Rhode Island, May 3d 1842. ([New York]: No publisher, 1844). Frame: 19.5″ x 15.5″. Image: 13″ x 8.75″. Tigerwood-like frame with general light wear, chipped at lower left corner. Image near fine, colors bright. $325
Thomas Wilson Dorr (1805 – 1854) was an American politician and reformer in Rhode Island, best known for leading the Dorr Rebellion, an effort to broaden the franchise in the state for white males and to change apportionment in the legislature to better represent urban populations. Born in Providence, Dorr graduated from Harvard and trained in the law. He became a state assemblyman in 1834 and quickly took on the issue of the franchise: white men were not allowed to vote because they did not own a certain value of real estate and rural interests dominated the state legislature, because seats were apportioned by geographic jurisdictions, not population. By 1840 Rhode Island was the only northeastern state that had not adopted universal suffrage for white males, resulting in more than half of the adult white male population being excluded from voting. Furthermore, apportionment by geographic towns resulted in more than half of the seats in the legislature being held by towns that had a total population of only 3,500 voters, less than 4% of the state’s population. In 1840 disgruntled citizens formed the Rhode Island Suffrage Association to address this injustice, with Dorr taking a leading part. The legislature refused to remedy the grievances and the state constitution offered no recourse. Consequently, the RISA formed “A People’s Party”, which held a convention, adopted a constitution, and submitted it to a vote of the people. Approximately 14,000 ballots were cast in favor of it, and less than 100 cast against it. Of those in favor, more than 4,900 were qualified voters. The proposed state constitution was formally approved not only by the majority of the males over twenty-one but apparently by a majority of the voters considered legal under the charter. The existing state government refused to consider any of these acts as legal. Rhode Island now had two rival governments. The People’s Party did not attempt to seize the state house or the machinery of government, but Whig governor King proclaimed martial law and offered a $5,000 reward for the capture of Dorr, prompting him to flee. After a more liberal constitution was proposed and adopted in 1843, Dorr returned to Providence, only to be arrested and put on trial. He was accused of treason against the state. The trial ended in his conviction. He was sentenced to solitary confinement at hard labor for life and was committed on June 27, 1844. The harsh sentence outraged the public and the legislature under pressure passed an act of general amnesty the following year; Dorr was released after having served twelve months. Dorr’s health had been broken by his ordeal and he retired from the public stage, dying nine years later. Today, Rhode Island’s state government recognizes the legitimacy of Dorr’s efforts and includes Dorr in its list of governors. This print, memorializing his conviction, includes under his name the words he spoke after his sentence was read: “The process of this court does not reach the man within. The Court cannot shake the convictions of the mind, nor the fixed purpose which is sustained by the integrity of the heart. From this sentence of the Court I appeal to the People of our State and of our Country. They shall decide between us.” Both Nathaniel Currier and James Baillie published prints of this design; this is the only one we’ve seen lacking an imprint.
N. Currier. View of the Terrific Explosion at the Great Fire in New York From Broad St. – July 19th 1845. (New York: N. Currier, 1845). Hand-colored lithograph. Near fine with light, even toning and old mat burn. $200
This dramatic depiction of action during the great fire of 1845 shows the Crocker & Warren Warehouse on Broad Street, where a large quantity of combustible saltpeter was stored, at the moment that it exploded, taking down with it eight adjoining buildings. Fire engine No. 22, attempting to escape the area. was blown across the street by the blast and consumed by the fire, The print shows other fire companies pulling their water wagons away from the disaster as well as, remarkably enough, a man blown into the sky on a piece of roof. The caption notes, “Engine 22 destroyed and several lives lost.” The actual death toll was thirty, including four firemen.
The Celebrated Oxygenated Bitters/A Sure Remedy for Dyspepsia, Asthma, and General Disability. (Hanford, New York: c. 1846). Mechanically colored wood engraving. Reveal: 22.75″ x 18.25″. Mat: 29″ x 24.25″ Near fine, bright and clean, with one small tear to lower margin. (along with) Oxygenated Bitters/A Sure Remedy… (Boston: c. 1855). Tinted ornate engraved box label. 9.75″ x 11″. Near fine, with vertical crease. The pair: $3,600
This stunning mechanically colored woodblock print dates from 1845-47, based on collating the positions held by several of the men who supplied testimonials. It is one of the earliest American examples of mechanically applied color (as opposed to hand-coloring) and arguably the most attractive. Though not identified, the top center portrait is of Dr. George Green (1798-1866) of Windsor VT, who was the inventor and purveyor of this marvelous cure-all (read: quack medicine). The “doctor” in his name, as you might have guessed, was an honorific. The bitters, an enormous success in the two decades before the Civil War, was manufactured in Windsor and distributed across the country. It is not known how long it was manufactured after the good doctor’s death, though it is known that his one son died during the civil war and none of the husbands of his daughters entered into the business. This poster listing its New York agents was printed by Albert Hanford, 58 Nassau Street. OCLC locates no holdings but there is a copy in the Jay Last collection at the Huntington. Included with the poster is a beautiful ornate unused box label engraved by J. G. Chandler of Boston. The text is printed in French, English, Spanish, and German, testifying to the international sales the bitters enjoyed. A great pair.
Zachary Taylor, People’s Candidate for President. 1848/Millard Fillmore, Whig Candidate for Vice President, 1848. (New York: N. Currier, 1848) 10″ x 14″. Hand-colored lithograph. Near fine, with modest discoloration to the margins. $500
Currier began publishing campaign banners in 1844. Most were issued in a vertical format. In some years, he also issued them in a horizontal format. This is one of those rarer prints, featuring portraits of the Whig nominees, Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. It is also one of the few banners to feature two presidents (the other being the 1864 Lincoln-Johnson issue). Exactly why Currier designated Taylor the “People’s Candidate” rather than the “Whig Candidate” has been speculated upon, but not established. Neat.
Honoring the Father of Our Country
C. G. Crehen. Design of the National Washington Monument to be Erected in the City of Washington. (New York: Wm. Endicott & Co., [1850]). Tinted lithograph. 30” x 21”. VG, wear and grime to extreme margins, a few surface smudges. $1,200
This handsome print, issued to solicit contributions to the Washington Monument building fund, depicts Robert Mills’ original design, including a terrace and pantheon around the base that were never built. The caption is flanked by two small floor plans, labeled “Plan of the Terrace,” and “Plan of the Pantheon.” Other Washington D.C. landmarks are visible in the background of the image, including the Smithsonian Castle, the Capitol, etc. At the bottom of the print in a facsimile of handwriting are the words, “Earnestly recommended to the favor of our Countrymen” and beneath that line facsimile signatures of Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, James K. Polk, George Mifflin Dallas, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, and Daniel Webster. There are three versions of this broadside, this being the largest. Worldcat lists four institutional holdings of this example.
The Mexican War At Home
Jones after Woodville. Mexican News (New York: American Art-Union, 1851). Engraving. Image: 22” x 18.25”. Mat: 27.25” x 23”. VG, with soiling to lower margin. Print trimmed to the edge of the image. $300
This 1851 engraving entitled Mexican News was sold by subscription to members of the American Art-Union. Engraved by Alfred Jones (1819-1900), the print is based on the popular 1848 painting by Richard Caton Woodville (1825-55) titled War News from Mexico. In the image, eleven individuals gather around the porch of the fictitious American Hotel, where a man stands reading a newspaper bearing the headline “EXTRA.” The listeners react in various ways to the latest news from the Mexican-American War (1846-48). Outside of the protective covering of the porch, seated on the step, is an African American man with a child in front of him, and in the window of the hotel a woman leans out, straining to hear. Woodville, the original painter, was from a prominent Baltimore family. He spent his early twenties studying under Karl Ferdinand Sohn (1805-67) in Düsseldorf, Germany. Woodville was known for painting contemporary interior scenes with exquisite detail and color. Many of his paintings, including War News from Mexico, were exhibited in the United States, often at the American Art-Union. The engraver, Alfred Jones, born in England, attended the National Academy of Design in New York in the 1830s. He returned to Europe in 1840, where he studied under London’s master engravers. After returning to America, he became one of the premier engravers in the country, engraving a number of images for the American Art-Union.
An Early Railway Pump Broadside
Newman’s Patent Hydraulics (Cincinnati: c. 1852). Handbill. 16.5” x 9.5”9 1/2″. Gold ink on thin white paper stock. VG, left margin trimmed, with fractional loss to border. Also, pinhole losses along horizontal fold. Signed by the inventor and owner Nelson Newman on verso. $500
This ornate advertising handbill, printed in gold ink, promotes Newman’s manufacturing business, which made and sold “Fire Engines, Hose & Hose Reels, Life and Force Pumps, Fountains, Fire Caps, Trumpets, Torches &c. … Force and life Pumps… and railroad water stations and the pumps, Water-wheels and Wind-Mills for driving them.”. The text is surrounded by a dozen vignettes displaying the products, including ornamental fountains, hand pumps, windmill pumps, and railroad water stations. On the reverse is an ALS dated March 22, 1852, and signed “N. Newman,” addressed to superintendent Mr. [John W.] Brooks, of the Michigan Central Rail Road, which reads in part: “Last summer you spoke of having a windmill and pump erected on your road … I am about to send a man for the same purpose to Sandusky to put one on the Mad River RR. If you will drop me a line with regard to it, it can be attended to at once …”. A remarkable relic from the early days of the American industrial age.
Webster In the Lead
John Magee. Great Footrace for the Presidential Purse ($100,000 and Pickings) Over the Union Course 1852. (New York: Nathaniel Currier, 1852). Hand-colored lithograph. Image: 10.88” x 16.12”. Frame: 16.36” x 21.25”. VG, trimmed, with three old tape stains to upper image and two repaired tears into caption. Currier’s address has been trimmed off the bottom. $2,000
This is a spirited satire by John Magee on the presidential election of 1852, showing Winfield Scott, Daniel Webster, and Franklin Pierce competing in a footrace before a crowd of onlookers for a $100,000 prize (the four-year salary for a president) and “pickings.” In the lead is Webster, who exclaims, “I can beat you both, and “walk in” at that although you had a hundred yards the start of me!!” Denied the Whig nomination in June, Webster was later persuaded to run as an independent candidate. Directly behind Webster appears Whig nominee Winfield Scott, in military uniform. Scott says, “Confound Webster! what does he want to get right in my way for? if he dont give out, or Pierce dont faint I shall be beaten.” Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce trails both of them, yelling, “No! No! old Fuss and Feathers [Scott’s nickname], you dont catch this child fainting now. I’m going in to make good time! whether I win or not, Legs! do your duty.” Onlookers standing behind a fence in the background cheer the contestants on. Particularly scarce in the hand-colored state.
Rare New Bedford View
J. W. Hill. New Bedford. From Fair Haven. 1853. (New York: Smith Brothers & Co., 1853) Steel engraving, Image size: 25″ x 37″. Frame size: 35″ x 45″. VG, with light tidelines to upper right corner and nameplate. $1,000
This wonderful mammoth view across Buzzard’s Bay of one of New England’s great whaling ports was engraved by William Wellstood (1819-1900) after a painting by J. W. Hill (1812-79) and printed by W. Pate. It was the source for the well-known small steel engraving which later appeared in the Ladies Repository. The print is not in Stokes, American Historical Prints, or Reps’ Views & Viewmakers, though owned by several New England institutions.
Pre-Civil War Views of New England Towns
John B. Bachelder (1825-1894), well known for his historical images of the Civil War, was also a fine landscape painter. He made his drawings on-the-spot, usually from an elevated vantage point just outside of the towns. Bachelder was concerned to present as accurate a picture of his subjects as was possible and his images are both precise and detailed. In 1856, he published a portfolio of twenty-two views of New England towns. The set is almost impossible to come by, so the images are usually found individually. Periodyssey offers the following two views:
Pittsfield, N. H. South View. (New York: Endicott & Co., 1856). Hand-colored lithograph. Image: 10” x 15.75” Frame: 15.5” x 20”. VG+, bright coloring. Tide line to lower right margin. $400
Salem, Mass. South View. (New York: Endicott & Co., 1856). Hand colored lithograph. Image: 10” x 15.75” Frame: 15” x 19.25”. VG, bright coloring. Long light crease running diagonally across sky to right. Two repaired tears to title bar. $400
Park Row Stores. Opposite the Astor House. New York. (New York: Doty and Bergen, [1854]) Engraving. 9 1/16 x 12″ VG, on coated stock. Chipping to margins, including printer’s line. $750
The engraving house of Warren S. Doty and Peter G. Bergen existed from 1846 to 1859. This is a superb example of their work. The Astor House was located on Broadway and Vesey Street in downtown Manhattan and was considered the city’s premiere hotel for many years. The businesses, identified by street number, include the clothiers Hanford & Brother, Ward, Babcock & Riggs, and Baldwin, Starr & Co., publishers Mason & Law, stationers Bassett, Aborn & Motley, and the footwear dealer Benedict, Hall & Co. Mason and Law were partners for only two years 1851 and 1852, thus establishing the date of this print. They were the publishers of the magazine Choral Advocate and specialized in sacred music and geography textbooks. On the left of the engraving is Lovejoy’s Hotel. It was opened in the 1830s and closed in 1870. Later the building was home to the New York Evening Mail and the Rural New Yorker before being demolished in 1889. The New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art appear to be the only institutions that own this print. Rarebookhub has no record of it being offered for sale or auction, but it did appear in two separate auctions in the 1910s.
R. Hewitt, Saddle, Harness and Trunk Maker. And Dealer in Valises, Carpet-bags, Whips &c. Corner of Main and E. Bridge Streets, Springfield, Mass. (Springfield, Thomas Chubbuck, c. 1850s). Hand-colored lithograph. Image: 12.5” x 8.5”. Field: 17” x 10.5”. Good, with soiling and short tears to the margins. Two tears intrude on image one to the left side into the first building and one on the right side affecting the tree and the sky. $300
This is a lovely advertising broadside for a Springfield business that lasted nearly forty years, from 1849 to 1888, the year of Hewitt’s death. We speculate on the dating of this broadside based on the fact that Hewitt was located on Bridge Street during the 1850s. Later in his career he was located on Main Street, but not near Bridge. Moreover, the buildings are distinctly pre-Civil War clapboard. Most of downtown Springfield was rebuilt after the Civil War in brick. Of added weight, the lithographer was located in the same building at the corner of Main and E. Bridge in the 1850s and 60s, but moved to Court Street in 1865.
A Group Portrait of Anti-Slavery Advocates
Leopold Grozelier. Heralds of Freedom. Truth, Love, Justice. (Boston: C.H. Brainard, 1857). Tinted lithograph. 22” x 18”. VG, soiling to margins, paper weakness around the word “Truth.” $2,000
This beautiful and rare broadside unapologetically celebrates the White male leaders of the 1850s abolitionist movement. It could only have been published in Boston, since New York and Philadelphia printers would not have undertaken so bold a project. The broadside features bust-length portraits of abolitionist leaders William Lloyd Garrison, at the center, his proteges Wendell Phillips to the left and Samuel May below, philosopher/theologians Ralph Waldo Emerson (top) and Theodore Parker (bottom), and politicians Joshua Reed Giddings and Gerrit Smith to either side. Worldcat locates only one copy, at the Boston Athenaeum.
A Group Portrait of Anti-Slavery Advocates II
Champions of Freedom: Free speech, free press, free soil, free men. (Hartford: E. B. & E. C. Kellogg & Co., 1857). Hand-colored Lithograph. 13” x 9.5”. Original margins trimmed off. Mounted on archival paper. Clean and colorful. $800
This rare lithograph (the only institutional copy is at the American Antiquarian Society) celebrates the anti-slavery work of four men: editor Horace Greeley, Senator Charles Sumner, poet John G. Whittier, and Senator William H. Seward. At first, this seems a bit odd. The print’s caption, after all, was the rallying cry just a year earlier for the candidacy of Republican candidate John C. Fremont. Why wasn’t he included? Perhaps his ignominious defeat dissuaded the Kelloggs from including him here. But what of the two most obvious candidates for anti-slavery honors: William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass? That’s perhaps easier to answer: Garrison was too radical and Douglass was too radical and Black. Neither of their visages would have enhanced the commercial prospects of the print. So the Kelloggs, while showing their New England liberal sentiments, chose a safer route, putting the firm at little risk of being tarnished with the brush of extremism. Though not the incendiary print it might have been, Champions of Freedom is, nonetheless, a beautiful visual in the antebellum fight against slavery.
Forest River White and Sheet Lead Works. Salem, Massachusetts. (Boston: F. F. Oakley’s Lith., ca. 1860) Hand-colored lithograph. 18” x 28”. VG, with a light crescent tideline to lower right corner and a 1” tear to upper left margin. $1,200
The Forest River Lead Company was incorporated in the 1840s and lasted into the 20th century. The quality of its products was regarded as among the best to be found. This print shows a view of the factory buildings from the river, with the rolling countryside in the background. Several employees are depicted on the company docks and a locomotive labeled, “Forest River,” is seen to the extreme left. Two sailboats and a dingy navigate the river. Found in three institutions. Clements Library and the American Antiquarian Society have this version of the print. The Library of Congress has a variant that features the company’s insignia suspended in the sky.
Lincoln and His Opponents Get Some Exercise
[Louis Maurer]. The Political Gymnasium. (New York: Currier & Ives, 1860). Lithograph. 13” x 17”. VG, several closed tears, soiling especially to margins. Trimmed. $2,500
This non-partisan Currier & Ives 1860 campaign cartoon features all of the presidential candidates and their supporters in the 1860 campaign joining in the spirit of the newly popular gymnasium movement. At the far left stands Constitutional Union party vice presidential candidate Edward Everett, as a muscle man holding aloft a barbell on which rests running mate John Bell. Though holding second place on the ticket, the former senator from Massachusetts Everett was much more popular in the Northeast than Tennessean Bell. To the right of Bell and Everett is “Tribune” editor Horace Greeley. His political ambitions are mocked by the artist who shows him vainly attempting to climb up on a horizontal bar labeled “Nomination for Governor.” Abraham Lincoln (center), who has successfully mounted a balance beam constructed of wooden rails, advises Greeley, “You must do as I did Greely, get somebody to give you a boost, I’m sure I never could have got up here by my own efforts.” His cross bar, labeled “For President,” represents the Republican nomination, which Lincoln won largely through Greeley’s powerful support. At far right stands Lincoln’s former competitor for the Republican nomination, William H. Seward, on crutches and with bandaged feet. He warns Lincoln, “You’d better be careful friend, that you don’t tumble off; as I did before I was fairly on, for if you do you’ll be as badly crippled as I am.” Near Seward the two sectional Democratic candidates compete in a boxing match. Stephen A. Douglas, the regular Democratic nominee, faces southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge. Douglas taunts his opponent, “Come at me Breck, and after you cry enough, I’ll take a round with the rest of them.” In response Breckinridge asserts, “If I can do nothing else I can at least prevent you from pulling Lincoln down.” This great cartoon fairly and economically summarizes the political landscape of the 1860 presidential campaign.
Commemorating Lincoln’s Inauguration
Augustus Feusier. “Presidents of the United States” (Philadelphia: F. Bouclet, 1861). Chromolithograph. 27” x 21.5”. Soiling to margins. Weakness to paper around title. $1,500
This vibrant chromo, issued to commemorate Lincoln’s first inauguration, depicts all of the presidents through to a beardless Lincoln, surrounding a vignette of Lady Liberty, the American eagle, a steamboat, and the Capitol (the dome complete as anticipated, though still under construction). This may be Feusier’s first published work in America. He didn’t stay in Philadelphia long, popping up for a year or two in post-war New Orleans and then disappearing from view.. A beauty.
A Large Sentimental Civil War Print
Max Rosenthal. The Soldier’s Dream of Home. (Philadelphia: William Smith, 1864). Lithograph. 19” x 24”. Near fine, with light spotting to margins. “Published by William Smith, Printseller, No. 702 South Third St., Philada.” $500
This handsome print depicts a Union soldier sleeping on his rucksack by a campfire envisioning his reunion with his wife, child, and parents. It is much larger and far more scarce than the Currier and Ives variation.
Forecasts the Coming End to the War
Phelps & Watson’s Historical Military Map of the Border and Southern States. (New York: Phelps & Watson, 1864). 26” x 35”, folding down to 6.75” x 4.5”. Large hand-colored pocket map in illustrated boards with explanatory text. Binding good, scuffed, well worn at tips, rebacked. Map VG, bright, with archival repairs to a few seams and points. $500
Phelps and Watson began issuing this map in 1863 and then updated it throughout the war. The last entry in the text that accompanies this map is for Oct. 1 [1864] and it reads: “From Mobile, Atlanta, and all parts of the south and southwest, cheering accounts predict the triumph of the Union arms.” Major engagements of the war are demarcated with red dots. Handsome.
E.C. Middleton. [Abraham Lincoln] (Cincinnati: E. C. Middleton, 1864) Frame: 18″ x 23″. Revealed image: 16″ x 12″. Chromolithograph on canvas double matted in period frame in fine condition with Middleton’s publisher’s blurb printed on reverse. $1,000
Historian Chris Lane writes: Elijah C. Middleton is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of chromolithography in America. Establishing his engraving firm in Cincinnati at mid-nineteenth-century, Middleton’s business benefited from the city’s prime location along routes of westward migration. Middleton and his partner, W.R. Wallace, ventured from engraving into chromolithography and produced the oldest surviving chromolithograph from Cincinnati (an 1852 certificate for a Cincinnati fire company). Middleton struck out on his own in 1861 as a “Portrait Publisher,” advertising his own gallery of printed portraits made with “warranted oil-colors.” His finely-rendered portrait of George Washington became an early icon in the world of chromolithography and gained attention as far away as Philadelphia, where lithography giant P.S. Duval commented on Middleton as a competitor. Desiring an accurate representation of Abraham Lincoln, Middleton actually solicited the President’s advice, sending a proof copy of the print and receiving in return a letter from Lincoln with both compliment and critique. The resulting portrait is the only instance in which Lincoln is known to have advised the artist for one of his portraits.
Grant and His Generals. Distinguished Commanders, in the Campaign Against Richmond. (New York: Currier & Ives, 1865). Lithograph. 16” x 20.75”. VG, lightly toned, two long tears to left margin, problems to lower right corner margin. $500
This is one of two Currier & Ives prints (the other being Sherman and His Generals) issued shortly after Appomattox to commemorate the Union military heroes of the final year of the war.
A Striking Lithograph Celebrating Union Army and Navy Officers
Henry Voight. Honor to the Brave. (New York: Kimmel & Forster, 1865). Lithograph. Reveal: 15.25″ x 19.5″. VG, minor toning, spot to Columbia’s armpit. $1,200
Columbia stands center wearing a liberty cap and holding laurel wreaths above two vignettes featuring portraits of Army Generals William T. Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, and Philip Sheridan and Navy Admirals David Dixon Porter, David Farragut, and John A. Dahlgren. Each leader has a vignette of a corresponding event from their wartime careers wreathed in oak leaves. Below are parading troops and jubilant crowds. Library of Congress appears to be the only holder of this beauty.
The Assassination of President of President Lincoln, at Ford’s Theater Washington D.C. April 14th 1865. (New York, Currier and Ives, 1865) Lithograph. 10” x 14”;
Death of President Lincoln. At Washington D.C. April 15th 1865. The Nation’s Martyr. (New York, Currier and Ives, 1865) Lithograph. 9.5” x 14”;
The Funeral of President Lincoln, New York, April 25th 1865. Passing Union Square. (New York, Currier and Ives, 1865) Lithograph. 11” x 14.5”;
General Grant at The Tomb of Abraham Lincoln (New York, Currier and Ives, 1867) Lithograph. 9.5” x 14”.
All Good, with toning, foxing, and tears along edges. Mat burn and stains to The Assassination. This set would look great framed and mounted in a stairwell. $1,600
These four Currier and Ives lithographs chronicle the assassination, death, funeral, and final resting place of Abraham Lincoln. The first two images, of the shooting of Lincoln and his death the next morning are well known. The final two of his funeral procession in New York City and the memorialization of General Grant’s visit to Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield in 1867 are less common. Together they form a quintessential quartet of images of the last days of Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln. Born Feby. 12 1809. Assassinated April 14 1865. Ours the Cross His the Crown. (NY: H.H. Lloyd & Co., 1865). Hand colored wood engraving. Image: 18.25″ x 12.75″. Frame: 25.5″ x 20″. Near fine, with a hardly noticeable bit of the black background has been repaired. $1,250
This bold, simple memorial to Lincoln features a monument to his memory inscribed “Ours the Cross/His the Crown.” An American flag is folded over the top of the monument and two small figures of a businessman and a soldier adorn the monument. At the base of the monument are a broken set of shackles and a woman, Columbia, wearing a crown and a blue and red dress, who weeps. This somber work is, according to Worldcat owned only by the American Antiquarian Society and the Huntington Library.
McClellan at Antietam
Max Rosenthal. Battle of Antietam. (Philadelphia: L. N. Rosenthal, 1865). Chromolithograph. 20” x 26”. Near fine, mounted on acid-free paper. $600
This large and vibrant chromo shows a scene from the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single-day battle in the Civil War, which took place on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland. It was regarded as a Union victory, in that the Army of the Potomac were able to turn back Robert E. Lee’s invasion. This image depicts McClellan on horseback in the center of the action surveying the battle. McClellan’s pose is taken from a painting by Baron Gros titled Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau. The print is a curious affair. It was published three years after the battle, one year after McClellan’s disastrous run for the presidency, and months after Lincoln’s assassination. Who was the market? Civil War vets? If that was the case, why not memorialize Gettysburg or Appomattox? Nevertheless, here it is, a big and beautiful rendering of one of the signal battles of the Civil War. The Rosenthals were important players in the field of lithography in mid-19th century Philadelphia. In addition to scores of prints, Louis published the chromolithographs that illustrated H. L. Stephens’ Comic Natural History of the Human Race (1852). Worldcat shows only two holdings, one at the American Antiquarian Society and the other at The National Defense University Library in Washington, DC.
A Brilliant 19th-Century Chromolithographer’s Window Placard
Alphonse Bigot. T. Sinclair & Co./Lithographers/Philadelphia. Chromolithograph. Image: 15 “ x 12”. Frame: 26” x 21.75. c. 1865. VG, on card stock, closely trimmed, not precisely square. $3,000
Thomas Sinclair is generally regarded as the greatest 19th century Philadelphia lithographer. A Scottish immigrant, he established his own firm in 1839 and dominated the field in his chosen city for four decades. This beautiful placard, probably printed in the 1860s when the firm was located at 311 Chestnut Street, features a central image of Senefelder at his drawing table, surrounded by three women representing the arts and sciences, and framed in Corinthian pillars and an elaborately decorated arch.. It was produced in several sizes. The Jay Last collection owns it as an 11” x 6” so-called business card (at that size we would identify it as a handbill). This version, probably the largest made, was intended for window display. We cannot find any sale or auction records for this placard. A great rarity.
A Monumental View of an Important Race
The Great Ocean Yacht Race: Between the Henrietta, Fleetwing & Vesta: Decr. 11th 1866. (New York: Currier and Ives, 1867) Chromolithograph. Large folio. Image: 17.75 x 28″ Frame: 29.75” x 39.25”. Near fine. Beautiful. $2,000
This spectacular print by the great Charles Parson (1821-1910) records the beginning of the 1867 transatlantic yacht race prompted by a $30,000 wager. The yachts Henrietta, Fleetwing, and Vesta left New York December 11 for the Needles, Isle of Wight. The Henrietta finished first having traveled 3,105 nautical miles. The Fleetwing came in distant second and the Vesta a close third. The unbelievably long full title reads “The Great Ocean Yacht Race: Between the Henrietta, Fleetwing & Vesta: The “Good Bye” to the Yacht Club Steamer “River Queen,” 4 Miles East of Sandy Hook, Light Ship, Decr. 11th 1866. The Henrietta arrived off the Needles, Isle of Wight, England at 5:45, P.M. Decr. 25th 1866, winning the race and making the run in 13 days 22 hours, mean time. The Fleetwing arrived 8 hours afterwards, and the Vista 1 1/2 hours after the Fleetwing.” There are two versions of this print: one a two-stone hand-colored lithograph and this version printed in color. Impressive.
Thomas Worth/ John Cameron. Pacing Horse “Billy Boyce” of St. Louis as He Appeared at Buffalo, N. Y. Aug. 1st 1868 Pacing … the Third Heat One Mile in the Fastest Time on Record 2:14 ¼.… (NY: Currier & Ives, 1868). Hand-colored lithograph. Large folio. Image: 17″ x 26.5″. Frame 28.5″ x 35.75″. VG, with foxing. $750
In New Orleans in 1855 the horse Pocahontas set an American record by pacing the mile at 2 minutes, 17 seconds. That record would stand for thirteen years, until the bay gelding Billy Boyce under jockey John Murphy paced the second mile of a three-mile race at 2 minutes, 15 ¼ seconds, and the third mile at 2 minutes, 14 ¼ seconds. Boyce’s record-setting pace held for eleven years. Harry Peters has stated (debatably) that “the firm of Currier & Ives is perhaps best known as the principal American publisher of pictures of horses.”” What isn’t debatable is that the prints they did produce were generally of a high and memorable quality. Currier and Ives memorialized Billy Boyce’s triumph with this handsome large folio print by Thomas Worth and James Cameron, both of whom signed in the plate. Though pacing in 19th century America was usually done with a jockey in a sulky attached to the horse, it wasn’t uncommon for jockeys to ride directly on the horse. However, far fewer prints of the period show jockeys in saddle. A handsome print, even with the foxing.
An Unrecorded Window Placard Touting the Velocipede
The Celebrated Parisian Velocipede Manufactured by John Ashcroft New York. (New York: Hatch & Co., c. 1869) Black plate proof. 10” x 8”. Near fine on card stock. $1,500
The predecessor of the bicycle, the Draisienne, was introduced in Paris in 1818. It featured a seat suspended between a front and back wheel, with handle bars for steering. It was propelled, Flintstones-like, by using one’s feet. Many decades later, when the design was improved with the addition of pedals mounted on the front wheel, this new version was christened the velocipede. In 1868 and 1869 a certain set of Americans took to the new invention in droves. Many manufacturers stepped forward to take advantage of the new market, one being John Ashcroft, who already had an established business producing safety valves and other metal hardware. Unfortunately, the craze was short-lived. The velocipede took considerable strength and skill to master, combining as it did the pedal function and steering in the front wheel. Adding to that deficiency were an uncushioned seat, metal wheels, and terrible roads. It was only with the introduction of rear-wheel chain-driven locomotion and pneumatic tires in the late 1880s that bicycles became the popular sport known to us today. Surely, this placard was produced in a full-color finished version, but we could find no holdings of either version.
(National Peace Jubilee) Rheimunt Sayer. “Exterior View of Coliseum for the Grand National Peace Jubilee, Boston Mass,…1869” (Boston: New England Lith. Co., 1869). Image: 14″ 18.75″. Frame: 20″ x 24.75″. Hand colored lithograph. Good with three dime-sized water drops visible on the sky at right and a stain to the right of the caption. Framed under plexiglass in a handsome mid-20th century brass frame with a linen mat and metallic bevel. $400
The Grand National Peace Jubilee was a musical celebration organized by Patrick Gilmore that took place in Boston over four days in mid- June 1869. It featured an orchestra and a chorus, as well as numerous soloists. More than 11,000 performers participated, including the famous violinist Ole Bull as the orchestra’s concertmaster and Carl Zerrahn as director of the choral forces. The Coliseum was a temporary building erected for the event near today’s Copley Square in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. Historian Richard Hansen says the event was the “high-water mark in the influence of the band in American life.” Worldcat locates two holdings; AAS also owns a copy.
A Great Currier & Ives Western View
The Pioneer Cabin of the Yo-Semite Valley (New York: Currier and Ives, c. 1870) Hand-colored lithograph. 11” x 15”. VG, bright coloring, uniform toning. $500
This inviting image of what was surely a tough existence depicts a man sitting with his dog in front of a small, neat cabin surrounded by the majestic rock walls and snowy peaks of Yosemite Valley. While this is not a rare print, oddly enough, it does not appear in Worldcat, though we know that the Library of Congress and the Bancroft Library at the University of California Berkeley own copies of it.
Anon. View of Lynn, Mass., in 1849. From High Rock. (Boston: J. H. Buffords, lithographer; J. L. Robinson, publisher; 1871). Tinted lithograph. Image: 10.25″ x 28.5″ Frame: 20.25″ x 38.25″. VG, with some spotting to the sky. $600
During the 1870s and 1880s, at least four quite different urban views of Lynn were published. This one is drawn from a low-angle elevation rather than the more conventional bird’s-eye perspective, The town is viewed from the northwest using the vantage point known as High Rock, a prominent elevation adjacent to the village center and common. Such a view from an inland perspective was not typical for coastal towns. However, as the harbor fades into the horizon, the view recalls the town’s colonial origins as a coastal port. The view appears to be an historical recreation of the town as it existed in 1849. However, although there is no attribution, it is almost an exact duplicate of a view published about 1850 by Edwin Whitefield, based on a daguerreotype by S.H. Whitmore. John Robinson, the publisher of the 1871 printing, added a legend and a table of population and real estate statistics from 1850 to 1870, documenting the community’s dramatic growth during the middle of the 19th century. Of the thirty-three places identified in the legend, nine are churches while only three are industrial in nature two steam mills and a soap factory.
National Straw Works, H.O. Bernard & Co., Westboro, Mass. (New York: E. Wells, Sackett, & Rankin, c. 1880). 24″ x 30″. Tinted lithograph. VG+, mounted on acid-free paper. $2,000
This impressive view of Bernard’s National Straw Works on Cottage Street in Westboro, Massachusetts, proclaims that the factory, is “the most extensive manufactory of men’s, women’s, and children’s straw hats in the world.” Above the view are small oval portraits of the National Straw Work partners: H[enry] O. Bernard, G[eorge] N. Smalley, H[enry] K. Taft, T[heodore] B. Smart, and J.P. Bancroft. We date the print based on information in Jay Last’s The Color Explosion, in which he states that the firm of Wells, Sackett, & Rankin existed for only a short time, from 1880 to 1883. We could locate only one institutional holding, an inferior copy at the Boston Athenaeum. Large lithographic views of nineteenth century American businesses are unusual and scarce.
View of San Francisco and Her Representative Men. [San Francisco: City Argus, 1883-85] Lithograph. Image: 13.5” x 19.5”. Frame: 22” x 27”. VG+, with vertical crease at center. Handsomely housed in a 20th century gilt frame. At top of image: “Supplement to the City Argus.” $600
The San Francisco City Argus is one of those regional magazines that lasted forever and now hardly a copy of it can be found. Its founder, publisher, and editor throughout its life was one Robert E. Culbreth. Born in Delaware in 1845, a graduate of Princeton in 1867, he came to California in his twenties, established the City Argus in September 1879 and edited it until 1906, when it failed, after which Culbreth lived on in retirement until his death in 1913. The Argus was on the ascent during the 1880s, reaching a peak circulation of about 5,000 by the end of the decade, then declining to fewer than a thousand subscribers by the turn of the century. Culbreth always aspired to be a Democratic Party rival to the San Francisco Wasp, but he didn’t have the resources to make a serious effort. For many years, the City Argus, like the Wasp, featured a lithographic cartoon centerspread, first drawn by Theodore Boyd, known today for the sheet music he published in the sixties and seventies, and later by someone who signed his inferior work “Kid.” Its most distinguished graphics period came in 1890-91, when Solly Walter, late of the Wasp, was its cartoonist. This supplement, which features a view of San Francisco from across the bay looking west, dates from 1883-85 because George Perkins , who is identified as “ex-governor,”did not leave office until January 1883 and Leland Stanford, also identified as “ex-governor,” became Senator Stanford in March 1885. Among the other “Representative Men” pictured are Claus Spreckels, the sugar king, beer meister John Wieland, and Railroad baron “Colonel” Peter Donahue. The piece is not signed but we can be sure that it is too graceful to be by Boyd. In fact, it is the prettiest graphic we have seen issued by the Argus. Worldcat shows no holdings of the magazine and, obviously, the print, but the California State Library and the San Francisco Library hold random volumes.
Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, 1885. (Oakland: Elliott & Co., 1885) Lithograph. Image: 20.25” x 25.75”. Sheet: 24” x 30.75″. Near fine, lightly toned. $1,500
This handsome bird’s eye view of the town of Santa Rosa, in northern California is adorned with vignettes of nineteen buildings and a key to fifty-two buildings in the view itself. In the lower left corner is an advertisement for “Guy E. Grosse broker in real estate,” which leads us to believe he was the publisher. Reps #405. WorldCat locates five copies, four of which are in California.
Cleveland, Lady Liberty, Civil Service Reform by Nast
Thomas Nast. This Would Be a Lasting Victory! Original pen and ink artwork. Reveal: 9” x 8.25”. Mat: 14.25” x 13.25”. Near fine on stiff paper. $2,500
This cartoon, which appeared on page 767 of the November 21, 1885, issue of Harper’s Weekly is a classic example of Nast’s later work at its best: well-composed, cleanly drawn, attractive. In the cartoon he lauds President Cleveland’s embrace of civil service reform, to the detriment of the party boss, which he is squashing like a bug. Since Nast drew directly on woodblocks prior to the mid-1870s, only these later Harper’s Weekly cartoons survive on paper. Within two years, he would leave Harper’s Weekly and though he would work for about a dozen publications in the remaining fifteen years of his life, he would never again come close to having the same influence that he had at Harper’s.
A Lovely Bird’s Eye of a Massachusetts Coastal Town
Geo. E. Norris. Amesbury, Mass. (Troy: The Burleigh Lith., 1890). 20.5” x 34”. Tinted lithograph. Near fine, with some mottled to margins. Mounted on archival paper. $1000
This impressive view of the coastal city of Amesbury, Mass. was drawn by George Norris (1855-1926) of Brockton, Mass. During his active years – 1883 to 1897 – he published more than 135 views, most of which he drew himself and all of which were of northeastern towns. He contracted with Henry Burleigh of Troy to print his bird’s eyes, but he was always his own publisher. This is only one of two nineteenth century bird’s eyes produced of Amesbury. It is indubitably the more handsome. Reps lists only two holdings in public collections, the Huntington and the Library of Congress.
Bird’s Eye Views by Bailey, Burleigh, et. al.
View of Bethel, Conn. (Boston: O. H. Bailey & Co,, 1879) Lithograph. 18” x 23”. VG+ with discoloration to edges. $800
Reps #524. The only bird’s eye produced of the western Connecticut town.
Brattleboro, VT. (Troy, NY: L. Burleigh, 1886) Lithograph. Image: 12″ x 27″. Frame: 22.25″ x 36.25″. Near fine, with light vertical burn mark to upper right. $1,200
Reps #4045. One of eight bird’s eye views produced in the 19th century of this southern Vermont city on the Connecticut.
Newport, Parry County, Pennsylvania. ([Philadelphia]: Fowler and Moyer, 1895) Lithograph. 15.5” x 25”. VG, with discoloration to edges and parts of sky. $800
Not in Reps. Accompanying this view is an oversized photograph of a boat moored in Newport.
West Chazy, N.Y. (Troy, NY: Burleigh & Co, 1899) Lithograph. 18.5” x 28”. Near fine, with two light creases to top margin. $800
Reps #2947. The only bird’s eye produced of this village just west of Lake Champlain.
Will Bradley. The Chap-Book [Blue Lady] (Chicago: Stone and Kimball, 1894) Lithography. 20” x 14”. VG, a few chips to margins, not affecting image. $1,800
The Blue Lady, as it is called, was Bradley’s second poster for the Chicago literary magazine The Chap-Book. It is strikingly different from all of the other posters he drew during this period because he forsakes his luxurious loops and curves for a severe vertical composition. The poster is appropriately a winter scene (it was drawn at the end of the year), depicting a woman carrying a pair of skates through the woods. Considered one of his better posters, it is, like all of them, relatively scarce.
Florence Lundborg. “What is That Mother? THE LARK my child, for August. 5 cts.” (San Francisco: William Doxey, 1895). 21″ x 16″. Woodcut on Bamboo fibre paper. Near fine with light horizontal crease. $400
The Lark, my child, hardly needs an introduction. Founded in May 1895 by Gelett Burgess and Bruce Porter, it whistled its merry tune for two years before its handlers went on to other things. The art posters created to promote the Lark were distinctively American in style and highly artistic, rather than comic as might have been expected given the nature of the magazine. California-born Florence Lundberg (1871-1949) was the Lark’s primary poster artist, producing seven of the eight posters issued (the first one was drawn by Bruce Porter). Even though Lundborg went on to a long career as a muralist, a portrait painter, and an illustrator, she is best known for the Lark posters. This is the second poster in the series and the first by Lundborg. We are told that Lundberg designed it, but Gelett Burgess cut the block. A lovely artifact from gay 1890s San Francisco.
Frank Hazenplug. “The Chap-Book” (Chicago: Stone and Kimball, 1896) Image size: 20.5″ x 14″. Frame size: 29″ x. 22.75″. Near fine. $1,000
Second only to Will Bradley, Frank Hazenplug was a star in the Stone and Kimball firmament. An Illinois native, he was just twenty when he joined the newly formed publishing house. In addition to designing and decorating Stone and Kimball books, he was a cover artist and poster designer for Stone and Kimball’s Chap-Book. Hazenplug created ten posters in all for the famous little literary magazine. After the magazine folded in 1898, he continued to work for H. S. Stone and Company. Between the turn of the century and World War I, his services as a book designer were in much demand, especially by Chicago publishers. This is one of his most handsome posters for the magazine.
Thomas Fleming. “M’lle New York Fortnightly“ (Fleming, Schiller, and Carnick Press: NY: [March] 1896). Colored lithograph. Image size: 17″ x 12″. Frame size: 26″ x 21″. Near fine, with modest crimping to the left edge of the poster paper. Attractively double-matted and framed. $400
M’lle New York is widely regarded as America’s first Avant Garde magazine. It made no effort to be in step with American culture; in fact, it disdained American culture, as the French accented title implied. Instead, the magazine attempted to appeal to a select elite: “the aristocracies of birth, wit, learning, and art.” It was a very small audience indeed with the cultivated open-mindedness to appreciate the magazine. It was the brainchild of Vance Thompson, journalist, autodidact, and Francophile. Assisting him in the enterprise was James Gibbon Huneker, who would later become the greatest arts critic of his generation, and cartoonists Thomas Fleming and T.E. Powers, who never again produced more interesting work. As befitted a magazine on the cutting-edge, it was the first publication to introduce America to the work of Maeterlinck, Ibsen, Hamsun, Verlaine, and Munch. The magazine had a languid, shocking sexuality about it, depicting gauzy-clad full-breasted women embracing death or being leered at by apes or dwarves. More in keeping with its time, it displayed an overt anti-Semitism throughout its run, featuring a number of demeaning stereotypical images of Jews and publishing such drivel as: “Jewish children are more intelligent than ours at the age of puberty; however, they lose as they grow. They are at once nearer Nature and the ape.” Though Blacks were also portrayed stereotypically, the magazine celebrated the work of several Black poets. It foreshadowed the little magazines of the teens and twenties, exuding a European decadence long before it became a defining cultural movement. This poster by the magazine’s chief artist is the eleventh in a series of fourteen posters produced during the life of the magazine to advertise its existence. Scarce.
Two of the Great Magazine Posters of the 1890s
Maxfield Parrish was one of America’s greatest illustrators. He is known for his distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery. He achieved his luminous coloring through glazing. This process involved applying alternating bright layers of oil color separated by varnish over a base rendering. The color Parrish blue was named after him. He studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and then at the Drexel Institute under Howard Pyle. His posters were more illustrative and detailed than those of Edward Penfield and Will Bradley, and marked by what Charles Hiatt referred to as “curious individuality.” In 1896 he placed second in a poster competition sponsored by The Century Magazine (see below). The judges, Elihu Vedder, F. Hopkinson Smith, and Harry B. Henderson, had denied him first place (won by J. C. Leyendecker) because his poster required five printings, when the competition rules set a limit of three. So the Century Company issued Leyendecker’s poster to advertise the August 1896 issue and waited ‘til the following August to use Parrish’s entry. By that time Parrish had been commissioned by Scribner’s Magazine to produce a poster for their August Fiction number (see below). So, by chance, in the early summer of 1897, two of his posters were on display both advertising the August issues of two of America’s leading monthlies. Arguably, they represent the best of his early work.
Maxfield Parrish. The Century Midsummer Number (NY: Thomas & Wylie Lithographic Co., 1897). Image: 19″ x 12.5″. Lithographed poster. Image field is near fine. Some chips and loss to matted out margins. $2,800
Maxfield Parrish. Scribner’s Fiction Number August (NY: [Scribner’s Magazine], 1897). Image: 19.75″ x 14.5″. Lithographed poster. Image field is near fine. Modest restoration to extreme edges. $3,200
Edward Penfield. Harper’s May [1896] (Paris: Les Maitre de L’Affiche, 1898). Lithograph. Image size: 15.5″ x 11.25″. Frame size: 19″ x 14.5″. Poster near fine in an elegant gold-leaf period frame. $400
This is #115 (of 256) in the celebrated Les Maitre de L’Affiche (The Masters of the Poster) series published monthly in Paris from December 1895 through November 1900. The series, the brainchild of celebrated poster artist Jules Cheret and his printer, Imprimerie Chaix, reproduced the poster work of 97 artists in a smaller, uniform 11″ x 15″ format. The plates are beautifully printed and entirely faithful to the originals.
A.B. Frost. [Autumn Hunting Scene] c. 1900. Frame size: 11.25″ x 13.75″. Image size: 7.75″ x 9.75″. Near fine in an elegant weathered period frame. $2,500
Arthur Burdett Frost (January 17, 1851 – June 22, 1928) was an early American illustrator and cartoonist. He drew for most of the major magazines of the day including Century, Scribners, Harper’s Weekly, Collier’s, Puck, and Life. He illustrated more than ninety books and is considered one of the great illustrators in the golden age of American illustration. He was renowned for his realistic hunting and shooting paintings and prints, of which he produced hundreds during his long career.
Charles F. Quest. [Woman in hat and gloves]. (1930) Watercolor. Image size: 9” x 8”. Mat size: 19” x 18”. Near fine. $400
This is a beautiful art deco portrait of a woman in hat and gloves, presumably for publication, by the illustrator, artist, and teacher Charles Francis Quest (1904-1993). Quest studied painting and sculpture for five years at the Washington University School of Fine Arts in St. Louis, earning both his Bachelor and Master Degrees of Fine Arts. After studying briefly in Europe, he made a career in the arts. In 1944, he returned to Washington University as a member of the faculty, where he taught until 1971. Quest painted murals for churches, schools, and other public buildings. He also worked in sculpture, stone carving, mosaic and stained glass, but is best known for his paintings and woodblock prints. His work is owned by at least forty-six museums in the United States and abroad, and has been exhibited in more than a hundred museums and galleries around the world. He had one-man exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution in 1951 and at the St. Louis City Art Museum in 1958. His papers and various works of art are housed at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC. A lovely piece.
Victory Over Fascism
Ángel Bracho. ¡Victoria! … Destrucción Total del Fascismo (Victory! … Total Destruction of Fascism) (Mexico City: Taller de Gráfica Popular, 1945) Color lithograph. 31.5” x 24”. Near fine, colors bright. $1,800
This large, impressive poster is considered one of the finest to come out of 20th century Mexico. It features the Nazi war machine in ruins, at the center of which an anguished Adolf Hitler is being lanced by a bayonet bearing the mighty red star of the Soviet Union. The flags of the US and England bracket the action. The artist Ángel Bracho (1911-2005) was one of the founding members of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop), an artist’s print collective founded in Mexico City in 1937 to use art to advance revolutionary social causes. The print shop became a base for radical political activity in the nation’s capital and attracted many foreign artists as collaborators. Taller specialized in linoleum prints and woodcuts. It produced posters, handbills, banners, and portfolio editions, supporting causes such as anti-militarism, organized labor, and opposition to fascism. The collective took the anti-commercial policy of not numbering prints. While Bracho is known mainly for his TGP work, he was also a muralist, who studied with Diego Rivera. The full translation reads: “Victory! The artists of the Popular Graphics Workshop have united to celebrate of all of the progressive workers and men of Mexico and of the world for the glorious victory of the Red Army and of the arms of all of nations united, over Nazi Germany. Let this be seen as the most transcendent step towards the total destruction of fascism.” A beauty.