Victorian Prints and Multiples

Leopard Seal - chromolithograph from an English natural history series. 135mm by 200mm (image) 165mm by 255mm (sheet)

'Jumbo' Vanity Fair legal portrait of Mr Samuel Pope QC, an Irish barrister. Accompanied by original descriptive text. 380mm by 260mm (sheet)

'Plausible' Vanity Fair legal portrait of The Hon. Mr Justice Swinfen Eady. Accompanied by original descriptive text pasted onto a separate sheet. 380mm by 260mm (sheet)

'Rhinology' Vanity Fair portrait of Dr Robert Spicer, 'a specialist in matters relating to ears, noses and throats'. Accompanied by original descriptive text. 380mm by 260mm (sh...

'A Connoisseur' Vanity Fair portrait of John Seymour Lucas (1849-1923) who was a Victorian English historical and portrait painter as well as an accompl...

'Master of the Horse' Vanity Fair portrait of Bernard Arthur William Patrick Hastings Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard KP, GCVO, PC (1874 –1948), styled Viscount Forbes from 1874 to 1889...

'Magdalen College, Oxford' Vanity Fair portrait of Portrait of Sir Thomas Herbert Warren (1853-1930) who was an English academic and administrat...

18th century natural history engraving depicting shells by Robert Benard after Henry Joseph Redoute. Henry Redoute was the bro...

'The Fountain of Job', tinted lithograph after David Roberts RA. Signed in stone lower right. Printed title below the image. Roberts travelled throug...

'He painted '"he Doctor"' Vanity Fair portrait of Sir Samuel Luke Fildes, KCVO, RA (1843-1927) who was an English painter and illustrator born at Liverpo...

18th century natural history engraving depicting shells by Robert Benard after Henry Joseph Redoute. Henry Redoute was the brother of the great botanical artist Pierre Joseph Redout...

The present woodcut engraving is an original print designed by Winslow Homer, originally published in Harper's Weekly on April 30, 1859. It is an excellent example of the many prints Homer produced of fashionable people engaged in leisurely activities, in this case along a picturesque countryside lane. The sign reading 'Belmont' on the left indicates this is probably near his home in Belmont Massachusetts. The image presents multiple figures, both men and women, riding horseback: Some in the distance gallop away, toward a town marked by a church steeple beyond. Three others in the foreground, including two equestrian women, gather around a group of children who have been gathering flowers and trapping birds...

Hugues Merle was a French painter who mostly depicted sentimental or moral subjects. Samuel Cousins was a highly regarded mezzotint engraver. 350mm by 2...

French botanical flower engraving, 1818. Colour-printed stipple engraving by J Lambert after Pierre Turpin (1775-1840) From Francois Pierre Chaumeton's 'Flore Medicale' which portrayed a variety of flowers, trees and herbs which could be used for treating illnesses. The engravings were produced during the great period of French colour printing using the stipple-engraving process pioneered by the great botanical artist Pierre-Jospeh Redoute. The artist is the celebrated Pierre Jean Francois Turpin...

'H Searle, Professional Champion Sculler of the World'. Vanity Fair rowing portrait of Henry Searle (1866-1889), an Australian sculler who raced in 1889 the American champion Willia...

Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life. Aldin executed village scenes and rura...

French botanical flower engraving, 1818. Colour-printed stipple engraving by J Lambert after Pierre Turpin (1775-1840) From Francois Pierre Chaumeton's 'Flore Medicale' which portrayed a variety of flowers, trees and herbs which could be used for treating illnesses. The engravings were produced during the great period of French colour printing using the stipple-engraving process pioneered by the great botanical artist Pierre-Jospeh Redoute. The artist is the celebrated Pierre Jean Francois Turpin...

'The Cavalry Division' Vanity Fair portrait of Admiral Sir Compton Edward Domvile GCB GCVO (1842-1924) who was a distinguished Royal Navy officer in the Edwardian era. 390mm by 26...

Title : 'Grand Cricket Match, played in Lord's Ground Mary-le-bone, on June 20th and following day between the Earl's of Winchelsea and darnley for 1000 Guineas.' Publication line ...

'The Solar System' Lithograph, circa 1885, compiled under the direction of Henry Chamberlain Russell, Government Astronomer. Russell became the Australian Government Astronomer in 1870 and subsequently held the position for 35 years. Russell was also Australia's first native born Government Meteorologist. He invented and made many instruments including telescope mountings...

'Eastern Portico, Baalbec', tinted lithograph by Louis Haghe (1806-1885) after David Roberts RA. David Roberts (1796-1864) traveled throughout Egypt ...

'La Brebis' Copper-line engraving, circa 1765 From Buffon's "Histoire Naturelle, Generale et Particuliere Avec la Description du Cabinet du Roi" which was published in Paris. 24c...

Artist: John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) Title: "Greenshank (St. Augustine, FL)" (Plate 346, No. 70) Portfolio: The Birds of America, First Royal Octavo Edition Year: 1840-1844 Medium: Original Hand-Colored Lithograph on wove paper Limited edition: approx. 1,200 Printer: John T. Bowen, Philadelphia, PA Publisher: John James Audubon and J.B. Chevalier, New York, NY and Philadelphia, PA Framing: Recently beautifully framed in a walnut wood moulding with hand decorated archival French matting and blue marbling Framed size: 13.63" x 15.75" Sheet size: 6.5" x 10.25" Image size: 4.38" x 7.75" Condition: In excellent condition with strong colors Rare Notes: Lithography and hand-coloring by American artist John T. Bowen (1801-c.1856). Comes from Audubon's famous seven volume portfolio "The Birds of America", First Royal Octavo Edition (1840-1844), which consists of 500 hand-colored lithographs. Comes with its original accompanying text pages on verso. The composition was probably painted in England in 1835, using a preserved specimen. Since no other than Audubon has ever claimed to have seen this European species in America, it is considered possible that he confused it with the greater yellow-legs. The common greenshank is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae, the typical waders. The genus name Tringa is the New Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading...

This is a 19th century Vanity Fair color chromolithograph caricature of William Booth "The Salvation Army" by Spy (Leslie Ward) November 25, 1882, No. 2...

Artist: John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) Title: "Sandwich Tern (with Florida Cray Fish) (Florida Keys)" (Plate CCLXXIX - 279; part No. 56) Portfo...

Historical mid-19th century hand tinted lithograph and a lively scene of men and women engaging in a light hearted game of the era by artist Joseph Nash (British, 1808-1878). Signed ...

'Perroquets 1 Psittacule pygmee 2 Lori tricolore' Engraving with original hand-colouring by Da Casse after A Fries From Guerin-Meneville's 'Dictionnaire Pittoresque D'histoire Nat...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior des...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior des...

'a Wandering Minstrel'. Vanity Fair portrait of Lord Gerald Fitzgerald who was principal cello of the Wandering Minstrels who were an orchestra of aristocrats who gave the first ev...

'India (Southern Sheet)', antique lithographic map by Keith Johnston. Inset maps of 'Bombay Island & Town', 'Madras & Environs', and 'South-Eastern Provinces of India'. Central vertical fold as issued. 495mm by 625mm (sheet) Alexander Keith...

Gregor MacGregor was a Scottish wicketkeeper for Middlesex and England. Tayler was an English artist who was a member of the Royal Academy of Painters. He was a cricketer himself, a...

'Les Arts Décoratifs - Etoffe Vénitienne' Depicts Venetian fabric from the 16th century. From 'Les Arts Decoratifs a toutes les epoques', printed by ...

Love and Death (after George Frederic Watts, R.A., H.R.C.A. 1817 - 1904). 1900. Mezzotint. Hardie 71 between i and ii. 24 1/2 x 12 (sheet 27 1/4 x 13 3/ 8). Edition 350 in state one. London, Published May 1st 1900 by Robert Dunthorne ,5 Vigo Street, London W. Rubbing and discoloration from a previous mat in the margins, well outside the image. A rich proof printed on Japon paper. Signed in pencil by Watts and by Short. Housed in an archival folder ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Winged Love...

'China and Japan', antique lithographic map by Keith Johnston. Central vertical fold as issued. 495mm by 625mm (sheet) Alexander Keith Johnston FRS...

Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, was a British artist and illustrator best known for his paintings and sketches of animals, sports, and rural life. Aldin executed village scenes and rura...

'Frank Wootton' Hentschel-Colourtype, 1909 Vanity Fair portrait of Frank Wootton. (1893 -1940), known as "Frank" or "Frankie", and sometimes referred to as "The Wonderboy", who wa...

'Les Arts Décoratifs - Etoffe Francaise' Depicts fabric from the 16th century. From 'Les Arts Decoratifs a toutes les epoques', printed by Lemercier & Cie, Paris. 300mm by 200mm (...

The present hand-colored lithograph is an excellent example of patriotic mid-nineteenth century American imagery. The print shows the battle and several of the major figures involved in the Battle of Lake Erie: At the center is a view of several frigates on the lake, embroiled in conflict. Above the battle is the quotation: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." Surrounding are laurel-lined roundels with portraits of Oliver Hazard Perry (1785-1819), Stephen Dicateur (1779-1820), Johnston Blakeley (1871-1814), William Bainbridge (1774-1833), David Porter (1780-1843), and James Lawrence (1781-1813) - all of these framed by American flags, banners and cannons. This print shows that the Battle of Lake Erie, part of the War of 1812, still held resonance for American audiences several decades later and was part of the larger narrative of the founding of the country. 9.5 x 13.5 inches, artwork 20 x 23.38 inches, frame Entitled in the image Signed in the stone, lower left "Lith. and Pub. by N. Currier" Inscribed lower right "2 Spruce N.Y." and "No. 1" Copyrighted lower center "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1846 by N. Currier in the Clerk's office of the Southern District of N.Y." Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and housed in a gold gilded moulding. Nathaniel Currier was a tall introspective man with a melancholy nature. He could captivate people with his piercing stare or charm them with his sparkling blue eyes. Nathaniel was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on March 27th, 1813, the second of four children. His parents, Nathaniel and Hannah Currier, were distant cousins who lived a humble yet spartan life. When Nathaniel was eight years old, tragedy struck. Nathaniel’s father unexpectedly passed away leaving Nathaniel and his eleven-year-old brother Lorenzo to provide for the family. In addition to their mother, Nathaniel and Lorenzo had to care for six-year-old sister Elizabeth and two-year-old brother Charles. Nathaniel worked a series of odd jobs to support the family, and at fifteen, he started what would become a life-long career when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton. A Bavarian gentleman named Alois Senefelder invented lithography just 30 years prior to young Nat Currier’s apprenticeship. While under the employ of the brothers Pendleton, Nat was taught the art of lithography by the firm’s chief printer, a French national named Dubois, who brought the lithography trade to America. Lithography involves grinding a piece of limestone flat and smooth then drawing in mirror image on the stone with a special grease pencil. After the image is completed, the stone is etched with a solution of aqua fortis leaving the greased areas in slight relief. Water is then used to wet the stone and greased-ink is rolled onto the raised areas. Since grease and water do not mix, the greased-ink is repelled by the moisture on the stone and clings to the original grease pencil lines. The stone is then placed in a press and used as a printing block to impart black on white images to paper. In 1833, now twenty-years old and an accomplished lithographer, Nat Currier left Boston and moved to Philadelphia to do contract work for M.E.D. Brown, a noted engraver and printer. With the promise of good money, Currier hired on to help Brown prepare lithographic stones of scientific images for the American Journal of Sciences and Arts. When Nat completed the contract work in 1834, he traveled to New York City to work once again for his mentor John Pendleton, who was now operating his own shop located at 137 Broadway. Soon after the reunion, Pendleton expressed an interest in returning to Boston and offered to sell his print shop to Currier. Young Nat did not have the financial resources to buy the shop, but being the resourceful type he found another local printer by the name of Stodart. Together they bought Pendleton’s business. The firm ‘Currier & Stodart’ specialized in "job" printing. They produced many different types of printed items, most notably music manuscripts for local publishers. By 1835, Stodart was frustrated that the business was not making enough money and he ended the partnership, taking his investment with him. With little more than some lithographic stones, and a talent for his trade, twenty-two year old Nat Currier set up shop in a temporary office at 1 Wall Street in New York City. He named his new enterprise ‘N. Currier, Lithographer’ Nathaniel continued as a job printer and duplicated everything from music sheets to architectural plans. He experimented with portraits, disaster scenes and memorial prints, and any thing that he could sell to the public from tables in front of his shop. During 1835 he produced a disaster print Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O’clock on the Morning of the 15th of May 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives. The public had a thirst for newsworthy events, and newspapers of the day did not include pictures. By producing this print, Nat gave the public a new way to “see” the news. The print sold reasonably well, an important fact that was not lost on Currier. Nat met and married Eliza Farnsworth in 1840. He also produced a print that same year titled Awful Conflagration of the Steamboat Lexington in Long Island Sound on Monday Evening, January 18, 1840, by which melancholy occurrence over One Hundred Persons Perished. This print sold out very quickly, and Currier was approached by an enterprising publication who contracted him to print a single sheet addition of their paper, the New York Sun. This single page paper is presumed to be the first illustrated newspaper ever published. The success of the Lexington print launched his career nationally and put him in a position to finally lift his family up. In 1841, Nat and Eliza had their first child, a son they named Edward West Currier. That same year Nat hired his twenty-one year old brother Charles and taught him the lithography trade, he also hired his artistically inclined brother Lorenzo to travel out west and make sketches of the new frontier as material for future prints. Charles worked for the firm on and off over the years, and invented a new type of lithographic crayon which he patented and named the Crayola. Lorenzo continued selling sketches to Nat for the next few years. In 1843, Nat and Eliza had a daughter, Eliza West Currier, but tragedy struck in early 1847 when their young daughter died from a prolonged illness. Nat and Eliza were grief stricken, and Eliza, driven by despair, gave up on life and passed away just four months after her daughter’s death. The subject of Nat Currier’s artwork changed following the death of his wife and daughter, and he produced many memorial prints and sentimental prints during the late 1840s. The memorial prints generally depicted grief stricken families posed by gravestones (the stones were left blank so the purchasers could fill in the names of the dearly departed). The sentimental prints usually depicted idealized portraits of women and children, titled with popular Christian names of the day. Late in 1847, Nat Currier married Lura Ormsbee, a friend of the family. Lura was a self-sufficient woman, and she immediately set out to help Nat raise six-year-old Edward and get their house in order. In 1849, Lura delivered a son, Walter Black Currier, but fate dealt them a blow when young Walter died one year later. While Nat and Lura were grieving the loss of their new son, word came from San Francisco that Nat’s brother Lorenzo had also passed away from a brief illness. Nat sank deeper into his natural quiet melancholy. Friends stopped by to console the couple, and Lura began to set an extra place at their table for these unexpected guests. She continued this tradition throughout their lives. In 1852, Charles introduced a friend, James Merritt Ives, to Nat and suggested he hire him as a bookkeeper. Jim Ives was a native New Yorker born in 1824 and raised on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital where his father was employed as superintendent. Jim was a self-trained artist and professional bookkeeper. He was also a plump and jovial man, presenting the exact opposite image of his new boss. Jim Ives met Charles Currier through Caroline Clark, the object of Jim’s affection. Caroline’s sister Elizabeth was married to Charles, and Caroline was a close friend of the Currier family. Jim eventually proposed marriage to Caroline and solicited an introduction to Nat Currier, through Charles, in hopes of securing a more stable income to support his future wife. Ives quickly set out to improve and modernize his new employer’s bookkeeping methods. He reorganized the firm’s sizable inventory, and used his artistic skills to streamline the firm’s production methods. By 1857, Nathaniel had become so dependent on Jims’ skills and initiative that he offered him a full partnership in the firm and appointed him general manager. The two men chose the name ‘Currier & Ives’ for the new partnership, and became close friends. Currier & Ives produced their prints in a building at 33 Spruce Street where they occupied the third, fourth and fifth floors. The third floor was devoted to the hand operated printing presses that were built by Nat's cousin, Cyrus Currier, at his shop Cyrus Currier & Sons in Newark, NJ. The fourth floor found the artists, lithographers and the stone grinders at work. The fifth floor housed the coloring department, and was one of the earliest production lines in the country. The colorists were generally immigrant girls, mostly German, who came to America with some formal artistic training. Each colorist was responsible for adding a single color to a print. As a colorist finished applying their color, the print was passed down the line to the next colorist to add their color. The colorists worked from a master print displayed above their table, which showed where the proper colors were to be placed. At the end of the table was a touch up artist who checked the prints for quality, touching-in areas that may have been missed as it passed down the line. During the Civil War, demand for prints became so great that coloring stencils were developed to speed up production. Although most Currier & Ives prints were colored in house, some were sent out to contract artists. The rate Currier & Ives paid these artists for coloring work was one dollar per one hundred small folios (a penny a print) and one dollar per one dozen large folios. Currier & Ives also offered uncolored prints to dealers, with instructions (included on the price list) on how to 'prepare the prints for coloring.' In addition, schools could order uncolored prints from the firm’s catalogue to use in their painting classes. Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives attracted a wide circle of friends during their years in business. Some of their more famous acquaintances included Horace Greeley, Phineas T. Barnum, and the outspoken abolitionists Rev. Henry Ward, and John Greenleaf Whittier (the latter being a cousin of Mr. Currier). Nat Currier and Jim Ives described their business as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures" and produced many categories of prints. These included Disaster Scenes, Sentimental Images, Sports, Humor, Hunting Scenes, Politics, Religion, City and Rural Scenes, Trains, Ships, Fire Fighters, Famous Race Horses, Historical Portraits, and just about any other topic that satisfied the general public's taste. In all, the firm produced in excess of 7500 different titles, totaling over one million prints produced from 1835 to 1907. Nat Currier retired in 1880, and signed over his share of the firm to his son Edward. Nat died eight years later at his summer home 'Lion’s Gate' in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Jim Ives remained active in the firm until his death in 1895, when his share of the firm passed to his eldest son, Chauncey. In 1902, faced will failing health from the ravages of Tuberculosis, Edward Currier sold his share of the firm to Chauncey Ives...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior des...

Chromolithograph, 1878. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior designers with st...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior des...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior des...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern...

Chromolithograph, 1878. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior designers with st...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior des...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior des...

Chromolithograph, 1878. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior designers with st...

Chromolithograph, 1878. The gold colour is actually metallic and shiny. From Frederick William Hulme's 'Suggestions in Floral Design', a late Victorian pattern book for interior des...

Leonard Braund was a bowler for Somerset and England. Tayler was an English artist who was a member of the Royal Academy of Painters. He was a cricketer himself, and in 1905 he made...

‘Tippoo - A Ram of the Mysore breed in the East Indies, sent by Dr. Anderson of Madrass to Sir John Sinclair, Bt & presented by him to His Royal Highness...

Vanity Fair legal portrait of Mr Edmund Widdrington Byrne QC MP for Walthamstow. 380mm by 260mm (sheet)

'Pearl Fishery, Torres Straits' Wood-engraving, circa 1885 43cm by 33cm (sheet) 28cm by 18cm (image)

'At Smithfield Market' Tinted lithograph with white highlights by Thomas Sidney Cooper, from 'Thirty-Four Subjects of Cattle', published in 1837 by Thos. McLean, Ackermann and Tilt....

A hand colored Vanity Fair caricature of a 19th century opera singer, M Jean de Reszke, entitled 'Polish Tenor'. The print was created by the most famou...

'Entrance to the Tomb of the Kings', tinted lithograph after David Roberts RA. Signed in stone lower right. Printed title below the image. Roberts tr...

Sheep by coast. Colour etching, circa 1800. 20cm by 26cm (sheet) 16cm by 20cm (platemark)