Giovanni Battista Piranesi

(Large!) UNA DELLE QUATTRO FIGURE RAPPRESENTANTI QUATTRO VITTORIE

1750-1757

AMERICAN REVOLUTION - (Attributed to Richard Brookshaw) JOHN PAUL JONES Commander of a Squadron in the Service of THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, 1779 (Creswell LC1...

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BRITISH CARICATURE THE HAPPY CONSULTATION, or MODERN MATCH, 1769 (DG 4335) ...

CHILDE HASSAM (1859 – 1935) OLD CHINATOWN - SAN FRANCISCO 1904 (Cortissoz 95 i/iii?) Etching, 5 ¼ “ x 5”. Signed and dated in the plate and with his cypher in pencil. An early state before additional work as in the example at Cornell University. Very Scarce print. On old ledger paper. Sheet 9 5/8” x 7”. Pre San Francisco earthquake. Based on a rare photograph by Arnold Genthe...

ARNOLD RONNEBECK (1885 – 1947) COLUMBUS CIRCLE ca. 1929 Lithograph, edition probably 50. Signed and titled in pencil, 12 ½” x 8 ¼” In very good condit...

RARE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH / NATHANIEL CURRIER THE WAY THEY CROSS THE ISTHMUS, 1849 (Conn. 6576, Gale 7105) Lithograph, EXTREMELY RARE Gold Rush caricature. One of a small series o...

ROBERT GIBBINGS (1898 – 1958) THE LOST ANCHOR, 1936 Wood engraving serving as the Publication Print of 1936 by The Woodcut Society of Kansas. Signed in p...

The four plates in this "Four Times of the Day" set were created utilizing both engraving and etching techniques by William Hogarth in 1738. Hogarth's original copper plates were refurbished where needed by James Heath and these engravings were republished in London in 1822 by Braddock, Cradock & Joy. This was the last time Hogarth's original copper plates were used for printing. Most were melted down during World War I for the construction of bombs. Printed upon early nineteenth century wove paper and with large, full margins as published by William Heath in 1822. The inscription below each print reads "Invented Painted & Engraved by Wm. Hogarth & Publish'd March 25. 1738 according to Act of Parliament". These large folio sized "Four Times of the Day" engravings/etchings are presented in complex gold-colored wood frames with black bands and scalloped gold inner trim. A majority of each thick impressive frame is covered with glass applied near the outer edge. Each frame measures 25.75" high, 22.25" wide and 1.88" deep. There are a few small dents in the edge of these frames, which are otherwise in very good condition. "Morning" has two focal areas of discoloration in the upper margin and some discoloration in the right margin, a short tear in the left margin and a short tear or crease in the right margin. "Noon" has a spot in the upper margin that extends into the upper image, but it is otherwise in very good condition. "Evening" has a faint spot in the upper margin, but it is otherwise in very good condition. "Night" is in excellent condition. The "Four Times of the Day" series is in the collection of many major museums, including: The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Tate Museum, The Chicago Art Institute and The Victoria and Albert Museum. Through this series Hogarth is portraying early 18th century London street life at "Four Times of the Day". His characters are exhibiting their personalities, quircks, strange activities, but he also wants to draw attention the disparities between the wealthy aristocracy and the common working class. Plate 1, "Morning" depicts morning in Covent Garden in the winter in front of Tom King...

This is a hand-colored 18th century map of the Meissen region of Germany, entitled "Geographischer Entwurff Derer Aemmter Meissen als Creys-Procuratur-Schul-und Stiffts-Ammt benebst ...

This is a framed 16th century hand-colored copperplate map of northern Italy entitled "Veronae Urbis Territorium a Bernardo Bragnolo Descriptium" by Abraham Ortelius from his atlas "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum", which was the first modern atlas of the world, with the first volume published in 1570. This map was part of a subsequent volume, published in Antwerp in 1584. It was based on an earlier map by Bernardo Brognoli. This beautiful map of northern Italy is focussed on Verona and its environs, including Mantua. Lake Garda and the South Tyrol mountains are prominently depicted. There is a very large striking cartouche in the upper left and a decorative distance scale in the lower right. This striking hand-colored map of northern Italy is presented in a gold-colored wood frame and an olive green-colored mat. It is glazed with UV conservation glass. All mounting materials used are archival. The frame measures 21.5" high by 28" wide by 0.75" deep. There is a central vertical fold, as issued, with slight separation of the lower portion of the fold. There are faint spots in the upper and right margins, but the map is otherwise in very good condition. Abraham Ortelius (also known as Ortels, Orthellius, and Wortels) (1527-1598) was a Dutch cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer. He began his career as a map colorist. In 1547 he entered the Antwerp guild of St Luke as an "illuminator of maps". He had an affinity for business from an early age and most of his journeys before 1560, were for business. He was a dealer in antiques, coins, maps, and books. 
His business income allowed him to acquire an extensive collection of medals, coins, and antiques, as well as a large library of books...

This colorful and detailed 17th century copperplate map by Frederick De Wit was published in Amsterdam between 1666 and 1690. It depicts the Caspian Se...

This is a 16th century original hand-colored copperplate engraved map of View of Pezaro (Pisaro), Italy entitled "Pisaurum vulgo Pezaro" by Georg Braun & Franz Hogenberg, from their famous city atlas "Civitates Orbis Terrarum", published in Augsberg, Germany in 1575. The map depicts a view of Pesaro, Italy from the west looking over the town to the Adriatic Sea. The River Foglia flows into the Adriatic in the foreground. The only identifiable building is the cathedral of San Domenico, which rises above the other roofs with its tall spire. Two women, dressed in styles of the 16th century are in conversation on a hill in the foreground on the left. Pesaro is in the province of Pesaro and Urbino and lies on the Adriatic and east of Florence. The city, which was founded by the Etruscans and named Pisaurum by the Romans, belonged from AD 754 onwards to the Papal States, and after 1285 was controlled by the princely families of Malatesta, Sforza and della Rovere. Today it is the capital of the province of Pesaro and Urbino and has a population of about 92,000. Pesaro's most famous resident, composer Gioacchino Rossini, was born here in 1792. The following is an English translation of an excerpt from Braun's description of the city: "We believe that the astonishingly short life of the inhabitants of Pesaro comes not only from the insalubrious air, but also from the great quantity of delectable and delicious fruits which they consume to excess. For this causes the production in their bodies of evil humours, which then lead to incurably fatal diseases. The area around the city is most charming and well planted with vineyards, fig trees, olive trees and other fruit-bearing trees." 
  References: Van der Krogt 4, 3369, state 1; Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg...

"Ce Matin Avant l'Aurore" is an original lithograph by Honore Daumier, the second state of three. Original Text: Ce matin, avant l'aurore, Un Dieu vint me réveiller ; Il me dit : tu dors encore… Est-il temps de sommeiller ? De ton Papa c’est la fête, Fais lui quelque don flatteur En lui posant sur la tête Une Couronne de fleurs. Translation: This morning before dawn A God came to wake me up The curtains they were drawn And my snoring had to stop It is your daddy's birthday, A time for gifts and flowers To be placed on his head so gray Instead of his morning showers. Artwork Size: 9 1/4" x 9 1/4" Frame Size: 20 1/2" x 17 5/8" Artist Bio: Daumier was a prolific draftsman who produced over 4000 lithographs, he was perhaps best known for his caricatures of political figures and satires on the behavior of his countrymen, although posthumously the value of his painting has also been recognized. His works offer a commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century. French caricaturist and painter, born at Marseilles. He showed in his earliest youth an irresistible inclination towards the artistic profession, which his father vainly tried to check by placing him first with a huissier, and subsequently with a bookseller. Having mastered the technique of lithography, Daumier started his artistic career by producing plates for music publishers, and illustrations for advertisements; these were followed by anonymous work for publishers, in which he followed the style of Charlet and displayed considerable enthusiasm for the Napoleonic legend. When, in the reign of Louis-Philippe, Philipon launched the comic journal, La Caricature, Daumier joined its staff, which included such powerful artists as Devéria, Raffet and Grandville, and started upon his pictorial campaign of scathing satire upon the foibles of the bourgeoisie, the corruption of the law and the incompetence of a blundering government. His caricature of the king as "Gargantua" led to Daumier's imprisonment for six months at Ste. Pélagie in 1832. The publication of La Caricature was discontinued soon after, but Philipon provided a new field for Daumier's activity when he founded the Charivari. For this journal Daumier produced his famous social caricatures, in which bourgeois society is held up to ridicule in the figure of Robert Macaire, the hero of a then popular melodrama. Another series, "L'Histoire Ancienne", was directed against the pseudoclassicism which held the art of the period in fetters. In 1848 Daumier embarked again on his political campaign, still in the service of Charivari, which he left in 1860 and rejoined in 1864. In spite of his prodigious activity in the field of caricature -- the list of Daumier's lithographed plates compiled in 1904 numbers no fewer than 3958 -- he found time for flight in the higher sphere of painting. Except for the searching truthfulness of his vision and the powerful directness of his brushwork, it would be difficult to recognize the creator of Robert Macaire, of Les Bas bleus, Les Bohémiens de Paris, and the Masques, in the paintings of "Christ and His Apostles" at the Ryks Museum in Amsterdam, or in his "Good Samaritan", "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza", "Christ Mocked...