Watercolor Prints and Multiples

An iconic female Frohsin figure with red and white stripes and heavy hand coloring. Monotype EV Ed 4/4. Signed front in pencil by Frohsin, who is strongly associated with the Bay Are...

18th-century celestial FLAMSTEED, John. Hydra Crater Corvus Sextans Virgo London, C. Nourse, 1753. A fine star chart from the Atlas Coelestis, the largest and most accurate star a...

Artist: George Brookshaw (English, 1751-1823) Title: "Pears (Bergamot de Chantilly, Bouchee, Winter Sweet Sugar Pear, Bishop's Thumb)" (Plate LXXIX) Portfolio: Pomona Britannica, or A Collection of the Most Esteemed Fruits Year: 1808 (First edition) Medium: Original Aquatint and Stipple Engraving with Printed and Hand-Coloring on wove paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: T. Bensley, London, UK Publisher: George Brookshaw, London, UK Reference: Dunthorne No. 50; "Great Flower Books" - No. 81; Nissen BBI No. 244; "An Oak Spring Pomona" No. 40a; Prideaux No. 295 Framing: Framed in a silver/gold moulding Framed size: 22.94" x 18.88" Sheet size: approx. 22.25" x 17.5" Image size: 16.25" x 12.25" Condition: Light toning to sheet. One unobtrusive foxmark lower center right. In otherwise very good condition Rare Notes: Provenance: private collection - Orlando, FL; acquired from The Old Print Shop, New York, NY retaining their original gallery label lower center on verso. Comes from Brookshaw's famous book volume "Pomona Britannica", (1804-1812) which consists of 90 aquatint engravings some with stipple printed...

Hand-coloured mezzotint engravings from: ""Phytanthoza Iconographia"", c1739, presented in hand-made parcel-gilt, ebonised and decalcomania frames. Johann Weinmann (1683-1741), a G...

St. Gervais is an original drawing in mixed media: watercolor and China ink on paper, realized by the French Artist C. Lartigue in the early 20th Century Hand-signed on the lower ri...

Monotype ev edition 2/7 with hand coloring. The plate (image) is 15 x 14 inches and the overall paper size is 29 1/2 x 22 inches. The artist spent 12 years creating monotype ev's, an...

Half-Limousine coachwork design for an Austro-Daimler. Gouache and watercolour heightened with gum-arabic on very dark green card, annotated in pale ink with body type below, numbere...

Artist: William MacGillivray (Scottish, 1796-1852) Title: "Lepidoptera (Butterflies)" (Plate XII) Portfolio: The Edinburgh Journal of Natural History, and of The Physical Sciences Ye...

This depicts a wedding scene in a style of German Expressionism. hand signed and hand painted in watercolor. Ilya Shenker, Russian/American (1922 - ) As a soldier in World War II, he survived where millions perished. Upon returning to his home town of Odessa, felt abandoned and alone. He studied Art and Architecture in Odessa, but, one of a number of Russian Jewish artists allowed to emigrate, he left for America when the opportunity arose. He settled in New York City, a choice that has forever impacted his oeuvre. Many of his pictures depict New York cityscapes and lifestyle; however, they remain typically Russian. His subject matter often comes from memory and includes the life that he left behind, family, and friends. Drawing upon his Jewish heritage for inspiration, Shenker also paints historical events, such as "On the Eve of the Assault" in which he portrayed the last night before the destruction of Jerusalem. He has also illustrated a number of classics of Russian literature including Alexander Pushkin. His use of imagination also applies to the figures in his expressionist paintings—fictional characters such as the Spanish literary character Don Quixote make appearances in his work. He has also placed figures such as Rembrandt and Picasso in modern settings: in "Rembrandt Visiting our Family," Shenker sits his most favored artist at his family table, in a tribute to someone he describes as a "peoples artist." He is one in a long line of great Soviet Russian Judaica Jewish artists beginning with Yehuda Pen, who founded Russia's first art school for Jews in Vitebsk in 1897 continuing with his students, including Marc Chagall and El Lissitzky, Natan Altman, Leon Bakst and Robert Falk...

Artist: Pierre Corneille Van Geel (Flemish, 1796-1838) Title: "Iris" Portfolio: Sertum Botanicum Year: 1828 (first edition) Medium: Original Hand-Colored Lithograph on wove paper Lim...

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 ...

Village House is an original painting in watercolor realized in 1890 ca. by an anonymous French artist of the end of 19th century. The state of preservation is good. Included a Pass...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-...

Artist: William Curtis (English, 1746-1799) Title: "Soldanella Alpina Alpine Soldanella" (Vol. 2, Plate 49) Portfolio: The Botanical Magazine; or, Flower-Garden Displayed Year: 1788 ...

Mr. Brainwash Bob Marley’s 74th Birthday Limited Edition Screen Print with Watercolor from 2019. Iconic, beloved artist, Bob Marley is a pioneer and legend of Reggae music. "One Lov...

Bold, embossed kimono by Patricia A. Pearce (American, b. 1948). Numbered, titled, and signed along bottom edge ("1/25 Kimono 6 Patricia A Pearce"). No frame. Patricia Pearce ...

Nude Woman is an original mixed media on cardboard artwork by Leo Guida in the XX century. The state of preservation is good except for some foxings. Sheet dimension: 35 x 50 ONn...

Signal 1 is a contemporary artwork realized by Leo Guida in 1970s Mixed colored ink and watercolor on paper. Hand signed, titled on the lower margin Includes frame: 63.5 x 49 cm ...

Artist: (after) George Fennell Robson (English, 1788-1833) Title: "Ben Lawers" (Plate 18) Portfolio: Scenery of the Grampian Mountains Year: 1819 (Second edition) Medium: Original Ha...

Artist: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French, 1707-1788) Title: "Atraphaxis (Shrub); Cabomba (Carolina Fanwort)" (Hexandrie, Digynie, Plate 265) Portfolio: Histoire Naturel...

The Scare is an original painting realized by Sergio Barletta in 1997. Applied on passepartout: 51 x 72 cm. Image Dimensions: 30 x 43 cm Hand-signed on the lower left. In good con...

Triumphal Arches is a beautiful lot of five hand-watercolored lithographs realized by an Italian artist of the XIX century later watercolored, and repre...

Lithograph from three aluminium plates using tusche washes, printed in transparent dark green, light green, and fire red, with hand colouring in gouache (an orange to red blend, pink, green, and deep red). On buff Velin Arches mould-made paper (300 gsm) Signed with initials, numbered and dated 82 in pencil, lower centre Published by Bernard Jacobson Ltd. Exhibition History: 'Howard Hodgkin: Views. An Exhibition of Early Prints', Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, 02 March - 02 April 2013 'London, Henri Matisse: The Goldfish Bowls and Other Prints (LOPF)', Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, 1 - 28 May 2021 'Howard Hodgkin Recollections’, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, 21 April - 14 May 2022 Literature: Frances Spalding, 'Howard Hodgkin: Tate Gallery and Bernard Jacobson', Arts Review, vol. 34, no. 20, 24 September 1982, p. 484; Elizabeth...

Roman Columns is a lot of two hand-watercolored lithographs realized by an Italian artist of the XIX century later watercolored, and representing the beautiful historiated columns wi...

The Tale of a Thousand and One Nights is interpreted by Dutch painter and illustrator Kees Van Dongen in over one hundred full-page original black and white line drawings and seven f...

"Landscape" is an original drawing in watercolor on cardboard, realized in 1942 by Jean Delpech (1916-1988). The state of preservation of the artwork is good with some ripping on l...

Hand colored Etching from Civitates Orbis Terrarum. One of the first printed views of Moscow, and the first of Braun and Hogenberg,The table shows ...

Watercolor on paper

This is original watercolor over a limited edition woodcut political poster. hand signed, dated and numbered. it bears similarity to works by Alexander Calder. Employing a star and abstract design. Katherine Porter is an American artist born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1941. She received her BA from Colorado College in 1963. Katherine Porter received an honorary doctorate from Colby College. She has shown twice in the Whitney Biennial and solo exhibitions at the Knoedler Gallery in London, the Nina Nielsen Gallery in Boston, and the Andre Emmerich and Salander-O'Reilly Galleries in New York. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Tel Aviv Museum and Bezalel Museum in Jerusalem. (Katherine Page Porter, Katherine Pavlis Porter) Her exhibitions include biennials in 1976 and 1981 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; 1980 at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts; 1981, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; 1985, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; and 1987 at the Sidney Janis Gallery, New York City. Classic Americana. American Abstract Expressionism. Early Pattern and Decoration piece, The movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon. The P&D movement wanted to revive an interest in minor forms such as patterning which at that point was equated with triviality. The prevailing negative view of decoration was one not generally shared by non-Western cultures, The Pattern and Decoration movement was influenced by sources outside of what was considered to be fine art. Blurring the line between art and design, many P&D works mimic patterns like those on wallpapers, printed fabrics, and quilts. There is a close connection between the Pattern and Decoration movement and the Feminist art movement. The P&D movement arose in opposition to the Minimalist and Conceptualist movements. Mary Grigoriadis Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Miriam Schapiro, Robert Zakanitch all worked in this same vein. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna, Austria Victoria Munroe Fine Art, Boston, MA Meridian Gallery, San Francisco, CA Salander O’Reilly Gallery, New York, NY Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, NY Knoedler Gallery, London Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, NY Pace Gallery, Addison, ME Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (drawings) Harcus Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS Contemporary Landscape Painting, Nagoya/Boston Museum of Art, Nagoya, Japan From the Collection of Edward Broida, Palm Beach Art Museum, Palm Beach, FL Abstraction Per Se (through January 1993), Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY Painting Self-Evident (Curator), Picolo Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC Art on Paper 1990, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, The University of North Carolina, Museo Barjola, Gijon, Spain; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal; Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY Sightings, Instituto de Estudios Norteamericanos, Barcelona; Casa Revilla, Valladolid, Invitational, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT Atelier Project, Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, NY Landscape Show, Allan Frumkin Gallery, NY Rethinking the Avant-Garde, by Jonathan Fineberg, The Katonah Gallery, NY Nancy Hoffman Gallery, NY Group Show, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland Contemporary Drawings, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, NY Modern Expressionist: German, Italian, & American Painters, Sidney Janis Gallery, NY American Women Artists, Part II: Younger Generation, Sidney Janis Gallery, NY Contemporary Works on Paper, Frumkin-Adams Gallery, NY Hassam Speicher Purchase Fund Exhibition, American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY The End of the World: Contemporary Visions of the Apocalypse, The New York Museum of Contemporary Art, NY Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Homage to Arthur Dove, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY Six Painters, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY Twenty New York Painters, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA 74th American Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Abstract Painting, Women’s Caucus, NY Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Spoleto Choice, Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC From Women’s Eyes, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA Theodoran, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY Three If By Air, Obelisk Gallery, Boston, MA Betty Parsons Collection, Finch College, New York, NY SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria California Palace of the Legion of Honor (Achenbach Foundation), San Francisco, CA Detroit Art Institute, Detroit, MI Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Gemeentsmuseum of the Hague, The Hague, Netherlands (permanent installation) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA Houston Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Mount Holyoke...

This is an original hand signed (I believe it is also hand colored but i am not positive) Artists Proof Lithograph of a Circus scene. This depicts a circus girl with horses. This came from a portfolio inscribed by Vertes and also signed by the Surrealist Jean Cocteau. MARCEL VERTES FRENCH HUNGARIAN 1895(Ujpest, Hungary)-1961(Paris, France) art deco artist.Vertes was born in Hungary and died in Paris, but spent a lot of time in New York as well. He was noted as a painter, illustrator, designer and scenic mural painter. His whimsical images graced the pages of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Continuing in the footsteps of Boutet, Forain, Erte, Toulouse-Lautrec and others. Concentrating upon scenes of Paris street...

Watercolor on paper 32 x 25 inches framed

Artist: William Cavendish (English, 1593-1676) Title: "Captain Mazin Rides, and the Marquis Gives the Lesson" (Plate 17, Page 76) Portfolio: Methode et Invention Nouvelle de Dresser ...

Artist: (after) Pierre-Joseph Redouté (French, 1759-1840) Title: "Jasminum officinale (Common jasmine)" (No. 27 page 93) Portfolio: Traité des Arbres et Arbustes que l'on Cultive en ...

18th-century celestial FLAMSTEED, John. Cetus London, C. Nourse, 1753. A fine star chart from the Atlas Coelestis, the largest and most accurate star atlas published up to that ti...

Billy Al Bengston Turkey Dracula, 1973 Color lithograph with hand coloring and watercolor (unique variant) on Lanaquaralle paper with deckled edges Hand signed and numbered A.P. #6, ...

Original gouache with stencil by Warner Kreuter. Wisconsin, 1929. Initialed lower/mid right. Dated lower left. Mounted on green card stock. Unframed.

Artist: Samuel Rush Meyrick (English, 1783-1848) Title: "John Duke of Somerset" (Vol. 2, Plate XLIX) Portfolio: A Critical Inquiry into Antient Armour Year: 1824 (First edition) Medi...

Titled: Side by side Ann Chernow (Connecticut b. 1936) etching. hand signed 'Ann Chernow' in pencil lower right. Numbered '5/15' in pencil lower left. Titled in pencil lower center. ...

Paper Size: 20 x 30 inches ( 50.8 x 76.2 cm ) Image Size: 20 x 30 inches ( 50.8 x 76.2 cm ) Framed: No Condition: A: Mint Additional Details: Hand painted montage of latin American ...

Artist: Edward Barnard (English, 1717-1781) Title: "Various Weapons & Implements of War ... Which have been Employed Against the English, by Different Enemies: Now Deposited in the Tower of London" Portfolio: New Complete and Authentic History of England Circa: 1785 Medium: Original Hand-Colored Etching on laid paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: Alex Hogg, London, UK Publisher: Alex Hogg, London, UK Sheet size: 15.38" x 9.63" Image size: 11.75" x 7.94" Condition: Slight toning to edges. Has been professionally stored away for decades. It is otherwise a strong impression in excellent condition Notes: Provenance: private collection - Cheltenham, UK. Engraved by English artist George Walker (1781-1856) after a drawing by English artist William Hamilton (1751-1801). Comes from Barnard's one volume "New Complete and Authentic History of England", (1783, 1785, 1790) (First - third editions), which consists of 105 engravings. Printed in one color from one copper plate: black. Biography: Edward Barnard (1717-1781) was an English cleric and academic, provost of Eton from 1764. Barnard was second son of Rev. George Barnard...

Monotype and watercolor on paper 44 x 33 inches framed

Watercolor on paper 32 x 25 inches framed

Artist: John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) Title: "Wilson’s Petrel - Mother Carey’s Chicken" (Plate 460, No. 92) Portfolio: The Birds of America, F...

Artist: Cornelius Nozeman (Dutch, 1720-1786) Title: "Ardea, Nycticorax (Black-crowned Night Heron)" (Plate 78) Portfolio: Nederlandsche Vogelen (Dutch Birds) Year: 1770-1829 Medium: ...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-...

"A seagull named Jonathan" is a linocut print artwork created in 1973. The artwork is made on paper and measures 32x30 cm. Linocut is a printmaking technique in which the image is ca...

Artist: John Gould (English, 1804-1881) Title: "Chrysocolaptes Xanthocephalus (Yellow-faced flameback)" (Vol. 6, Plate 37) Portfolio: The Birds of Asia Year: 1850-1883 Medium: Origin...

This is an artist proof (one of a kind) aquatint and watercolor depicting a cactus-filled Mexican garden, a mirror tilted up and an image of the artist s...

Aquatint with hand coloring in watercolor on watermarked, laid Arches paper, 8 1/16 x 5 9/16 inches (206 x 142 mm), full margins. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered 22/40 in pencil,...

Artist: Cornelius Nozeman (Dutch, 1720-1786) Title: "Larus, Cinereus (European Herring Gull)" (Plate 101) Portfolio: Nederlandsche Vogelen (Dutch Birds) Year: 1770-1829 Medium: Origi...

Artist: Cornelius Nozeman (Dutch, 1720-1786) Title: "Corvus, Cornix (Hooded Crow)" (Plate 106) Portfolio: Nederlandsche Vogelen (Dutch Birds) Year: 1770-1829 Medium: Original Hand-Co...

Artist: Michael Burghers (Dutch, c.1647/1648-1727) Title: "The New Testament" Portfolio: Holy Bible *Signed by Burghers in the plate (printed signature) lower left Year: 1680 Medium: Original Etching and Engraving with recent Hand-Color on watermarked laid paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: John Baskett, London?, UK Publisher: Moses Pitt, Peter Parker, and Thomas Guy, London?, UK Sheet size (irregular margins): 17.25" x 10.5" Image size: 14.75" x 9.5" Condition: Uneven trimming and light edgewear in margins. One small tear entering image lower right which has been skillfully repaired with added backing paper with archival tape from verso. It is otherwise a strong impression in very good condition with strong colors Very rare Notes: Provenance: private collection - Cotswolds, UK. Comes from the 1685 "Holy Bible" portfolio. John Baskett was deemed printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty, for Great Britain and to the University of Oxford. Large unidentified watermark within center of sheet. There is an example of this work in the permanent collection of the British Museum in London, UK. In the foreground, John the Evangelist, holding a pen and writing...

Large scale black and white etching depicting an abstracted pool, at David Hockney’s home in Los Angeles. This hand painted Howard Hodgkin work is i...

Artist: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French, 1707-1788) Title: "Mimufops (Mimusops); Ibricaria (Shingle Oak)" (Octandreie, Monogynie, Plate 300) Portfolio: Histoire Nature...

Allier's colorful, charming illustrations of the four seasons, winter, summer, spring, and fall, done in beautiful pochoir coloring. Each image reads ""dessiné par Paul Allier"" and...

Artist: Saverio Manetti (Italian, 1723-1785) Title: "Eagle" (Plate V - 5) Portfolio: Storia Naturale Degli Uccelli (The Natural History of Birds) Year: 1767-1776 Medium: Original Hand-Colored Engraving on watermarked laid paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: Unknown Publisher: heirs of Francesco Mouck (Vols. I-III), Gaetano Cambiagi (Vol. IV), Giuseppe Vanni (Vol. V), Florence, Italy Reference: Ayer/Zimmer page 241; Fine Bird Books page 120; McGill/Wood, page 450; Nissen IVB No. 588 Sheet size: 16.75" x 14.5" Platemark size: 13.63" x 10.88" Condition: Some minor surface marks mainly in margins. In excellent condition with strong colors Rare Notes: Provenance: private collection - Haarlem, Netherlands. Engraved and hand-colored by Italian artists Lorenzo Lorenzi (Active: 1750-1780) and Violante Vanni (1732-1776). Latin and Italian texts by Saverio Manetti. Comes from Manetti's monumental five volume "Storia Naturale Degli Uccelli (The Natural History of Birds)", (1767-1776), which consists of 600 hand-colored engravings. Unidentified watermark in very center of sheet. Comes with its accompanying information sheet. Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 60 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Manetti's extraordinary "Storia Naturale Degli Uccelli (The Natural History of Birds)", 1767-1776 was commissioned by Maria Luisa, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. It is a massive 5 book volume set...

The present hand-colored lithograph was produced as part of the funeral and mourning culture in the United States during the 19th century. Images like this were popular as ways of remembering loved ones, an alternative to portraiture of the deceased. This lithograph shows a man, woman and child in morning clothes next to an urn-topped stone monument. Behind are additional putto-topped headstones beneath weeping willows, with a steepled church beyond. The monument contains a space where a family could inscribe the name and death dates of a deceased loved one. In this case, it has been inscribed to a young Civil War soldier: William W. Peabody Died at Fairfax Seminary, VA December 18th, 1864 Aged 18 years The young Mr. Peabody probably died in service for the Union during the American Civil War. Farifax Seminary was a Union hospital and military headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The hospital served nearly two thousand soldiers during the war time. Five hundred were also buried on the Seminary's grounds. 13.75 x 9.5 inches, artwork 23 x 19 inches, frame Published before 1864 Inscribed bottom center "Lith. & Pub. by N. Currier. 2 Spruce St. N.Y." Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and TruVue Conservation Clear glass, 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...

Artist: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French, 1707-1788) Title: "Quivisia; Portesia" (Octandreie, Monogynie, Plate 302) Portfolio: Histoire Naturelle Year: 1749-1789 Medium: Original Hand-Colored Engraving on laid paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, France Publisher: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Paris, France Framing: Not framed, but beautifully double matted with hand decorated archival French matting...