1870s Prints and Multiples

"The Celebrated Clipper Ship Dreadnought" is an original hand-colored lithograph by Currier & Ives. It depicts a sailing ship. 13 1/4" x 17 1/2" art 19" x 23 1/2" frame 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...

"Le café de la Nouvelle Athènes" French Impressionist Etching Etching of the bustling Café de la Nouvelle Athènes by Jean-Louis Forain (French b. 1852 d. 1931.) A row of men in top...

Etching in paper realized by Eugène Champonnion after Mariano Fortuny. Signed "Fortuny 68" loer right, in the plate. Foreground Figures: Two Moroccan men are seated on the ground. ...

WOLF, Joseph (artist) Four Pheasants London, For the author, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, 1871 Four original hand-coloured lithographic plates by Joseph Smit after Joseph Wo...

Important and rare etching by G. De Nittis. Good condition with fine tonal contrasts. Slight foxing all over the sheet . 1st state - before the ink veiling. Edition unknown. "This d...

Etching on laid paper Signed in plate lower left: Jean François Raffaëlli. Published by Cadart & Luquet, Éditeurs, 79 Rue Richelieu, Paris With the blindstamp of the Société des Aqua...

Medium: etching (etched by Theophile Narcisse Chauvel after the Jacomin painting). Published in Paris by L'Art in 1875 and printed by Francois Lienard on laid paper. The image measur...

Medium: original etching. Printed on laid paper by Cadart and published in Paris by Gazette des Beaux Arts in 1876. Plate size: 5 1/8 x 6 3/8 inches (130 x 165 mm). Not signed.

A finely detailed etching realized after William Fowler, showing a tranquil pastoral scene under blossoming spring trees, where cows rest or graze and a woman tends to calves. The s...

Medium: original etching. Executed in 1879, this is one of the "Danube Set" of Otto Bacher's German compositions from his travels in Bavaria. Printed on laid paper and published in B...

Etching realized by Jules Jacques Veyrassat (1828-1893) after Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899). It depicts the bustling Paris horse market, showing vigorous movement as horses are led and s...

Les Demoiselles de Village is an artwork realized by Gustave Courbet in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative o...

Medium: etching (after the painting). Etched by Charles Courtry after Carolus Duran. This impression on laid paper was printed by A. Salmon and published in Paris for "L'Art" in 1875...

Etching on laid paper Signed in plate lower left: F. Buhot Published by Cadart & Luquet, Éditeurs, 79 Rue Richelieu, Paris With the blindstamp of the Société des Aquafortistes, lower...

Leonardo da Vinci, After by Amand Durand, Italian (1452 - 1519) - Trois Tetes de Chevaux, Year: circa 1878, Medium: Heliogravure, Size: 6 x 8.5 in. (15.24 x 21.59 cm), Printer: Am...

Medium: etching (etched by Theophile Narcisse Chauvel after the Wilhelm von Gegerfelt painting). This impression on japon paper was printed in 1875 (before letters were added) and pu...

Medium: original etching. Printed in 1875 on laid paper at the Alfred Salmon Imprimerie and published in Paris by L'Art. Plate size: 8 1/2 x 11 inches (215 x 278 mm). Signed in the p...

Medium: original etching. This is a rich, dark impression on laid paper with full original margins, printed by A. Salmon and published in Paris by L'Art in 1876. Size: 9 1/2 x 10 7/8...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Belongs to the Series "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration o...

Etching and drypoint realized by Auguste Mongin in 1878, after Meissonier. Early proof before the letter, with the stamp of the publisher Petit. The subject was published on the Ma...

Etching on laid paper Signed in plate lower right: A. Taiée Published by Cadart & Luquet, Éditeurs, 79 Rue Richelieu, Paris With the blindstamp of the Société des Aquafortistes, ...

Etching on laid paper Signed in plate lower left: E. Ulm Published by Cadart & Luquet, Éditeurs, 79 Rue Richelieu, Paris With the blindstamp of the Société des Aquafortistes, low...

Medium: etching (etched by Theophile Narcisse Chauvel after the Jacomin painting). This impression on laid paper was printed by Francois Lienard in 1875 and published in Paris for L'...

Etching on laid paper Signed and dated in plate lower left: Jongkind 1864 Published by Cadart & Luquet, Éditeurs, 79 Rue Richelieu, Paris With the blindstamp of the Société des Aquaf...

Medium: etching. Etched by Adrien Didier after the figure by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel known as The Libyan Sibyl. This impression on japon paper was printed in 1875 at the A...

"Fast Trotting in the West (Milwaukee Race)" is an original hand-colored lithograph published by Currier & Ives. It depicts two horses pulling racing carts. The text below the picture reads "Fast Trotting in the West...Lucy and Goldsmith Maid...trotting their closely contested race over the cold spring course Milwaukee, Wis. Sept. 6th 1871...Where Goldsmith Maid won the 2nd heat in 2:17!! The fastest Mile heat in harness on record. Purse $4000 $2500 to 1st $1500 to 2nd horse____ 8 in. in harness. TIME 2:20 1/2 2:17 2:20" 16 3/4" x 26" image 22" x 27 3/4" paper 35 3/4" x 41 7/8" 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...

Medium: original etching. Printed in 1875 on thin japon paper at the Alfred Salmon Imprimerie and published in Paris by L'Art. Plate size: 8 1/2 x 11 inches (215 x 280 mm). Attached ...

Medium: etching. Etched by Jules de Goncourt after Paul Gavarni. This impression on cream laid paper was printed in 1875 by Francois Lienard and published in Paris by L'Art. Plate si...

Medium: etching. Etched by Paul Edme Le Rat after Mino da Fiesole. This impression on thin japon paper was printed in 1875 at the Alfred Salmon imprimerie (before letters were added)...

Medium: etching (after the painting). Etched by a French engraver after the Corot painting. Published in Paris in 1873 by the Galerie Durand-Ruel for the rare "Recueil D'Estampes Gra...

Etching on laid paper, realized in 1877 and published by Cadart & Luquet, Paris. This elegant 19th-century etching by Spanish artist Ricardo de los Ríos depicts a refined young ...

Medium: etching (etched by Theophile Narcisse Chauvel after the Jacomin painting). This impression on japon paper was printed by Francois Lienard in 1875 (before letters were added) ...

Medium: etching (etched by Leopold Flameng after the Francois Fleming painting). This impression on laid paper was printed in 1875 and published in Paris by L'Art. Plate size: 7 1/2 ...

Medium: etching. Etched by Jules de Goncourt after Paul Gavarni. This impression on thin japon paper was printed by Francois Lienard in 1875 (before letters were added) and published...

Chromolithograph of Ducks, laid on to contemporary card (as published). [Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1878]. Alexander Pope, Jr., was an American sculptor and painter. He’s kn...

Medium: etching (after the painting). Etched by French artist Frederic Auguste Laguillermie after the Corot painting. Published in Paris in 1873 by the Galerie Durand-Ruel for the ra...

Etching on laid paper. A finely executed etching by Spanish artist Ricardo de Los Ríos, celebrated for his refined intaglio work and historical genre scenes. This plate, dated 1872,...

Etching after a work by Henriette Browne (1829–1901), published on "L'Art", Paris, in 1877. This finely executed etching by Edmond Hédouin reproduces Henriette Browne’s orientalist ...

Etching realized by Giovan Battista Piranesi in 1875. Image dimension: 40.5x52 cm. Sheet dimension  68.5x74.3 cm. Signed on the plate lower right. Plate from Views of Rome. Excell...

Etching in laid paper. A highly detailed etching by Léon Gambard, depicting a majestic herd of African elephants gathered at a watering hole under a vast, expansive sky. The animals...

Finely detailed late 19th century chromo-lithograph portrait of a violinist street musician by John George Brown (British, 1831-1913). Many of Brown’s paintings were reproduced in lithography (Chromo-lithograpy), as is the case with the one offered here. Presented in a rustic antique Oak wood frame with giltwood fillet. Image, 15.63"H x 10.63"W. John George Brown was a British citizen and an American painter born in Durham, England. His parents apprenticed him to the career of glass worker at the age of fourteen, in an attempt to dissuade him from pursuing painting. He studied nights at the School of Design in Newcastle-on-Tyne while working as a glass cutter there between 1849 and 1852, and evenings at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh while working at the Holyrood Glass Works between 1852 ad 1853. After moving to New York City in 1853, he studied with Thomas Seir Cummings at the National Academy of Design where he was elected a National Academician in 1861. Brown was the Academy’s vice-president from 1899 to 1904. Around 1855, he worked for the owner of the Brooklyn Glass Company, and later he married the daughter of his employer. His father-in-law encouraged his artistic abilities, supporting him financially, letting Brown pursue painting full-time. In 1866, he became one of the charter members of the Water-Color Society, of which he was president from 1887 to 1904. Brown became famous for his depictions of street urchins found of the streets of New York (bootblacks, street musicians, posy sellers, newsboys, etc.). Brown’s art is best characterized as British genre painting...

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 - 1903, British) "Fulham (Chelsea Church)" Etching Year 1865 8" x 5 1/8 unframed 13.75 x 17.25" framed

Charming original drypoint on ivory coloured plate realized by Giuseppe De Nittis between 1870 and 1880. Signed on plate lower left margin, not numbered and in perfect conditions. In...

Artist: (after) James Ward (English, 1769-1859) Title: "Bulls Fighting" Portfolio: The Portfolio *Signed by Wise in pencil lower right. It is also signed in the plate (printed signat...

Medium: etching (etched by Edmond Hedouin after the Jean-Francois Millet painting). Catalogue reference: Beraldi 39. Published in 1875 in Paris by L'Art and printed on japon paper, a...

Medium: etching (after the painting). Etched by a French engraver after the Corot painting. Published in Paris in 1873 by the Galerie Durand-Ruel for the rare "Recueil D'Estampes Gra...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Plate from "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration of notable p...

Signed the plate with the artist's monogram “TS”lower left. Inscription “C. Lovera imp” lower right. Very rare print from “L'Art in Italia”, 1871.Original Prints. Image Dimensions : ...

Antique Dog Portrait Lithograph in the Taste of Alfred De Dreux Greyhounds D France, circa 1870 Lithography 25 5/8 x 19 5/8 (28 x 20 frame) inc...

Raid On A Sand-Swallow Colony " How Many Eggs?" is an original wood engraving from Harper’s Weekly June 13, 1874 in very good condition. One of Am...

Marcantonio Raimondi, After by Amand Durand, Italian (1480 - 1534) - Sainte Cecile d'apres Raphael, Year: 1875, Medium: Heliogravure, Size: 11 x 6.5 in. (27.94 x 16.51 cm), Printe...

Medium: etching (after the painting). Etched by a French engraver after the Millet painting. Published in Paris in 1873 by the Galerie Durand-Ruel for the rare "Recueil D'Estampes Gr...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Belongs to the Series "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration o...

Souvenir is a black and white etching realized by Adolphe Appian (1818–1898) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 23.5cmx13cm. Very Good condition. Realized by Cadart for t...

Les Sorcières is a black and white etching realized by Jean Amable Pastelot in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Good condition. Not signed. Realized by Cadart for the "Société des Aqu...

Un Forgeron is an artwork realized by Eugène Delacroix in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher...

Medium: etching (after the painting). Etched by Charles Courtry after the Corot painting. Published in Paris in 1873 by the Galerie Durand-Ruel for the rare "Recueil D'Estampes Grave...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Belongs to the Series "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration o...

Here They Come Derby Day is a print artwork realized in 1878 by French artist Adolphe Lalauze created in 1878 after a work by C. Green. Etching on paper Signed and title on the pla...

Medium: etching (etched by Theophile Narcisse Chauvel after the Hippolyte Boulanger painting). Published in Paris by L'Art in 1875 and printed by Francois Lienard on laid paper. The ...