1870s Prints and Multiples

This Winslow Homer woodcut engraving entitled "Skating on the Ladies' Skating-Pond in Central Park, New York", was published in Harper's Weekly in the January 28, 1860 edition. It depicts a large number of men, women and children skating on a recently opened pond in Central Park. At the time of publication of this engraving, Central Park was in the early stages of construction. This engraving documents the very early appearance of Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux's masterpiece of landscape design. According to Olmsted, the park was "of great importance as the first real Park made in this century – a democratic development of the highest significance". The people of New York were very proud of the plans for their park. It was stated at the time: "Our Park, which is progressing very satisfactorily under the management of the Commissioners, will undoubtedly be, one of these days, one of the finest place of the kind in the world...Those who saw the Park before the engineers went to work on it are amazed at the beautiful sites which have been contrived with such unpromising materials; all fair persons believe that the enterprise is managed with honesty and good taste." Skating was rapidly rising in national popularity in part due to the opening of Central Park’s lake to skaters on a Sunday in December 1858 with 300 participants. The following Sunday it attracted ten thousand skaters. By Christmas Day, a reported 50,000 people came to the park, most of them to skate. There were rules governing who could use the skating pond. “The Ladies’ Pond...

"The New Steamship Cephalonia, of the Cunard Line" is an original hand-colored lithograph by Currier & Ives. It depicts a large sailing steamship. There is a significant stain in the artwork in the upper center. 12" x 16 3/4" art 21" x 26" 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...

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...

A Cadart & Luquet is an artwork realized by Edouard Dufeu in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publ...

Environs De Varennes En Argonne  is an artwork realized by Alphonse Beaujouint in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the ini...

Landscape is an artwork realized in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher Alfred Cadart, the ...

Marais de la Canche is an artwork realized by A. Segé in the 1870s. Etching. Image size:21x30 Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiati...

Pies Sous Bois is a black and white etching realized by Jules Laurens (1825–1901) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 23cmx31cm. Very Good condition. Signed in the lower l...

Vue de Longueville is an artwork realized by C.De Cok in the 1870s. Etching. Image size:23x31 Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiati...

Intérieur de Ferme is an artwork realized by Léon Jacque in the 1870s. Etching. Image size:16x22 Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initi...

Baiser d'Une Mère is an artwork realized by Henri Charles Guérard in the 1870s. Etching. Image size:24x17 Good conditions. Realized for the...

Une Porte is an artwork realized by P.L.F. Dujarric in the 1870s. Etching. Very Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publish...

A Nohant-Vico is an artwork realized by Joseph François Villevieille in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of...

Mendiant Romain is an artwork realized by Soumy in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher Alfred...

Vue du Port au Chemin de Fer à Honfleur is an artwork realized by Jongkind in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initi...

Rue Souk El Selah au Caire is an artwork realized by Edouard Dufeu in the 1870s. Etching. Image size:23x12 Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on...

Environs de Rix is an artwork realized by A.Appian in the 1870s. Etching. Image size:9x17 and 9x17 Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the ini...

Un Sentier is an artwork realized by Tancrède Abraham in the 1870s. Etching. Image size:34x23 Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiati...

 Le Triomphe de La Justice et de la Verité is an artwork realized by François Chifflart in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born ...

Le Chemin de la Mort is an artwork realized by Charles Thompson in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the ...

Clairière 1875s is an original print in etching technique, realized after Narcisse Virgilio Diaz (French Painter; 1807-1876) by Henri Paillard (...

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...

En Italie is an artwork realized by Giberto Borroméo in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher...

Rose Trémière is an artwork realized by Alfred Taiée in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher...

Le Haut d'Un Battant de Porte is an artwork realized by Félix Bracquemond in the 1870s. Etching. image size: 28x38 Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. ...

La Partie de Cartes (Espagne) is an artwork realized by Francisco Lameyer y Berenguer in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born o...

M.J. Luquet is an artwork realized by Charles Jaque in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher Al...

Chateau du Clos lucé à Amboise is an artwork realized by A. Queyroy in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative o...

"SEESAW--Gloucester, Massachusetts" is an original wood engraving after Winslow Homer. The artist initialed the piece in the lower right. This print depicts six children on a seesaw ...

Ayant Couru à Chantilly is an artwork realized by Jacques-Joseph Lecurieux in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the init...

Michel Ange is an artwork realized by Edouard Moyse in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher Al...

Souvenir du Jura is an artwork realized by X.Dananche in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher ...

Les Cigognes is an artwork realized by Félix Bracquemond in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publi...

L'Elevèment is an artwork realized by D. Félix in 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher Alfred Ca...

Le Petit Branconnier is an artwork realized by Jacques-Joseph Lecurieux in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiativ...

La Champagne is an artwork realized by Charles Jaque in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher A...

Le Déjeuner du Chat is an artwork realized by Théodule Ribot in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the pu...

Au Fil de l'Eau is an artwork realized by Aufray in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher Alf...

Ruine de la Villa Adrienne is an artwork realized by Joseph-Charles Nigote in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initi...

Le Val Clémence is an artwork realized by T.Abraham in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher ...

Prisonnier is an artwork realized by A.Gautier in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher Alfre...

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...

Harfleur is an artwork realized by A. Brunet Debaines in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publishe...

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 watermarked la...

Armar se Jette à la Mer is a black and white etching realized by Auguste Feyen-Perrin (1826-1888) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 19cmx27cm. Good condition. Signed on ...

Il Signor Biancheri-scillensciu is an original artwork realized in the 1870s by Antonio Manganaro. Original colored lithograph. Good conditions except for the yellowing of paper du...

Cliché-verre. Magnificent proof of ancient edition, numbered in red pencil on verso, and whose subject wasn’t included in the later reprints by Bouasse-Lebel and Le Garrec. Signed on...

Site en Norvège is a black and white etching realized by Carolus-Duran (1837–1917) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 28cmx17.5cm. Very Good condition. Realized by Cadart...

Due Parole A Quattr'Occhi is an original artwork realized in the 1870s by Antonio Manganaro. Original colored lithograph. Good conditions except for yellowing of paper due to the t...

Diana after the Hunt is a black and white etching realized by Charles Chaplin (1825 – 1891) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 19cmx24cm. Very Good condition. Signed in t...

Purple Martin is a modern artwork realized in 1870 by the British artist Alexander Francis Lydon (1836-1917). Woodcut print on ivory-colored paper. Han...

Beautiful proof on vélin fort, with stamp “Lugt 1048”. Full margins. Ref. Cat. Harrington 170; Schneiderman 163.

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...

Rue St.Yves à Rennes is a black and white etching realized by Francisque Coué in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size 20cmx29cm. Very Good condition. Signed in the plate in the...

Numidian Crane is a modern artwork realized in 1870 by the British artist Alexander Francis Lydon (1836-1917). Woodcut print on ivory-colored paper. Hand-colored, published by Lond...

La Chasse aux Canards is a black and white etching realized by Charles Émile Jacque (French, 1813–1894) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 30.5cmx16cm. Very Good condition...

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...

Un Philosophe is a black and white etching realized by Edouard Moyse (1827-1908) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 22.5cmx28.5cm. Good condition. Not signed. Realized b...

Petit Canot de St Valery is a black and white etching realized by Adolphe Hervier (1818 -1879) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 16.5x23.5cm. Very Good condition. Realiz...

Un Marèchal à Moret is a black and white etching realized by Jules Jacques Veyrassat (1828-1893) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 27cmx19cm. Good condition. Signed on t...