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Currier & Ives
19th century color lithograph seascape boat ship waves maritime landscape

c. 1850

About the Item

"Iron Steam Ship Great Britain" is an original hand-colored lithographed published by Currier & Ives. It depicts a large British steam ship on the water. The caption below says "3500 Tons. Engine 1000 Horse power. Weight of Iron used in the Ship and Engine is 1500 Tons. THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD. Length from Figurehead to Tafrail 322 Fe3et. Main breadth 50' 6" ... Depth 32' 6" Lieut. Jaf. Hosken R.N. Commander." 8" x 12 3/4" art 17 1/8" x 21 1/2" frame 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. 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.
  • Creator:
    Currier & Ives (1834 - 1907, American)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1850
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 17.125 in (43.5 cm)Width: 21.5 in (54.61 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 7910g1stDibs: LU60532098273

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