19th Century Prints and Multiples

Combat Naval is a black and white etching realized by Charles Longueville (1829-1899) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 30cmx22cm. Very Good condition. Signed on the low...

Le Canal St Martin is a black and white etching realized by Adolphe Martial-Potémont (1827-1883) in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 30cmx21cm. Very Good condition. Realiz...

James Whistler (1834-1903), The Mill, 1889, etching and drypoint, signed in pencil with the butterfly on the tab and inscribed “imp”, and inscribed “first state” (twice) and annotated “Wunderlich” and signed again with the butterfly verso. Reference: Kennedy 413, first state (of 5). Glasgow 457, second state (of 6; see discussion below) (cf. Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011) On laid paper, in very good condition, trimmed just outside of the platemark all around except for the tab by the artist, 6 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches. A very fine impression of this great rarity, printed in black/brown ink with a slight veil of plate tone. provenance: H. Wunderlich & Co., New York Louis B. Dailey, New York (Lugt 4500) sale, Sotheby’s, New York, October 31, 2003, lot 69 literature; Neue Lagerliste 122: James McNeill Whistler – Etchings...

'Representation of Norman Pavers in the Possession of H Rooke Esq. FAS' Aquatint with original hand-colouring, 1802, by William Fowler (artist, engraver and publisher) (1761–1832). ...

Etching realized by Félix Milius d'après Van Dyck in 1872. Very good condition.

"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...

The Clan of Fraser (Tartan) Chromolithograph. 1886. From 'The Tartans of the Clans of Scotland', by James Grant, 1886. 365mm by 265mm (sheet). Accompanied by a sheet of descript...

Etching realized by Félix Milius d'après Van Dyck in 1872. Very good condition.

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

Etching and lithograph on cream wove paper, 6 x 8 3/4 inches (151 x 220 mm), full margins. With some scattered light spots of yellowing in the margins on the recto, outside of image ...

"The Kaminarimon at the Kanseon Temple in Asakusa" - Original Japanese Print Japanese Print "The Kaminarimon at the Kanseon Temple in Asakusa", from the series "Famous Places in Ed...

Views in Rome, drawn and engraved by Bartolomeo Pinelli, of Rome, London, W.B. Cooke, 1834. In-8° (cm 24x17). Unumered pages with 27 b/w plates out of the text, etchings on copper with tissue paper. Polished speciment, with diffused foxing on margins. Brown Canvas Binding Cover with title marked in gold on wedge in the spine. Spine ligtly damaged in lower margin. Cover with the Castle Saint Angel...

Deux Heures du Matin is the b/w lithograph plate ( n.6 ) from the satirical print series “ Les Trains de Plaisir”, composed of caricatures “ de mœurs” (of behaviours), realized by  H...

Powerful Tern Sylochelidon Strenuus illustrated by John Gould (1804-1841) for his book 'The Birds of Australia'. Printed for publication by Hullmandel & Walton. Smartly housed in a f...

'Ericas and Epacrises' Flowers are numbered with a key to the varieties below the image. Antique English flower botanical chromolithograph.

'Laelias and Cattleyas' Flowers are numbered with a key to the varieties below the image. Antique English flower botanical chromolithograph.

'Azaleas' Flowers are numbered with a key to the varieties below the image. Antique English flower botanical chromolithograph.

This artwork from the suite "La Tauromaquia, Plate #23" engraved between 1815 and 1816, is a photogravure on creme wove paper after renown Spanish artist Francisco Jose De Goya...

Georges de Feure's original lithograph "Retour", created in 1897, is an iconic work of art that reflects the artist's characteristic Symbolist aesthetic and Art Nouveau style. This l...

Medium: etching (etched by Paul Rajon after Rembrandt). This impression (with retroussage) was printed in 1885 for the Sylvester R. Koehler portfolio of etchings and published by Cas...

Short-Eared Owl is a modern artwork realized in 1870 by the British artist Alexander Francis Lydon (1836-1917) . Woodcut print, hand colored, published by London, Bell & Sons, 1870...

'Forced Shrubs' Flowers are numbered with a key to the varieties below the image. Antique English flower botanical chromolithograph.

'Pyrethrums' Flowers are numbered with a key to the varieties below the image. Antique English flower botanical chromolithograph.

John James Audubon was born in Haiti in 1785. Most of his childhood was spent in France, where he first took interest in birds and drawing. He came to the U.S. at age 18, and made ma...

Medium: chromolithograph (after the watercolor). This delightful antique lithograph was published in a small edition in 1892 to illustrate a rare volume with scenes of Venetian life....

Lithograph realized by Daumier in 1845, belonging to the Series "Les Gens de Justice" Table no. 16 of the Series. Monogrammed in the plate. Very good condition. Ref. Delteil 1352

Paris: Cadart, 1865. Etching on buff wove paper, 3 1/2 x 7 inches (88 x 177 mm), full margins. In good condition with some light toning and several minor spots of light discoloratio...

Johan Wilhelm Palmstruch (1770-1811) Sweden Title: A Bear hand-coloured print early 1800s print dimensions approx 4.33 x 7.08 inches (11 x 18 cm) frame 11.81 x 15.74 inches (30 ...

Medium: original etching. This impression on wove paper was printed in 1885 for the Sylvester R. Koehler portfolio of etchings and published by Cassell & Company. Plate size: 4 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches (117 x 182 mm). Signed in the plate, not by hand. Condition: there is soiling in the margins and an old...

Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn, After by Amand Durand, French (1831 - 1905) - View of Amsterdam from the Northwest (B212), Year: Printed in: 1878 of Original: circa 1641, Medium: Etchi...

The Hanged Man is an original etching realized by Félicien Rops in 1868, – 3rd state on 4, plate from “Uylenspiegel”, title "Le pendu, ou la mère gran...

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...

Physiology of Boxing is an Original Litograph realized by Luc Albert Moreau (1882-1948). The artwork is in good condition included a cream colored cardboard passpartout (49x32 cm). No signature. In the 1920s, French painter Luc-Albert Moreau created a suite of 60 lithographs of the many aspects of boxing, which he considered a noble sport. Physiologie de la Boxe featured paintings and drawings of boxing winners and losers, as well as spectators and managers. Moreau was a painter with the Cubists up to 1912, but soon reverted to a more traditional style. He also produced lithographs of Parisian bars...

William Hogarth was an English painter and engraver, the outstanding British artist of his period. During his childhood, his father, a schoolteacher, was imprisoned for debt, and th...

Beautiful proof on vergé crème, signed by the artist in pencil. Full margins. Ex-coll. H.H. Benedict (Lugt 1298). Ref. Cat. Harrington 221; Schneiderman 208.

London: T. Bensley for R. Bowyer, 1810 Hand-colored aquatint on cream wove paper, 9 x 12 3/8 inches (227 x 318 mm), full margins. Scattered light toning and a spray of light spots o...

'German Wolf Trap' Colour aquatint by Mathew Dubourg (1786-1838) and Samuel Howitt (1756/7-1822) after Samuel Howitt (1756/7-1822). From Samuel Howitt's 'Foreign Field Sports'. Sam...

'Middle Ages - Moyen-Age - Mittel Alter' Late 19th century interior design chromolithograph, from Racinet’s ‘L’Ornement Polychrome’, 1887. Published in Paris. Albert Racinet's 'L' ...

Medium: original etching. Printed in 1888 and published by The New York Etching Club. Plate size: 8 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches (215 x 140 mm). Signed in the plate, not by hand. Condition: t...

James Basire & John Carter Architectural view of Exeter Cathedral Engraving 61 x 95 cm This engraving was originally published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, an organisa...

London: James Whittle & Richard Holmes Laurie, 1814. Engraving with hand coloring in watercolor on wove paper, 11 1/2 x 17 1/4 inches (290 x 437 mm). Condition issues include signif...

Charles Herbert WOODBURY The July Century, 1895 Lithograph Printed signature in the plate On vellum Size 39 x 29 cm (c. 15.3 x 11.4") INFORMATION : Plate 32 of "Les Maîtres de l'A...

Medium: mezzotint (engraved by David Lucas after the John Constable painting). Printed in 1855 on cream wove paper for the "English Landscape Scenery" portfolio, published in London ...

Paris: Cadart & Luquet, c1870. Etching with engraving on Chine-collé mounted to wove paper, 14 1/4 x 9 5/8 inches (360 x 244 mm) full margins. In good condition with some marginal w...

Une Rue à Beyrouth is a black and white etching realized by Charles Longueville in 1870s. Titled in the lower. Image size: 29cmx21.5cm. Very Good condition. Realized by Cadart fo...

This is an original 19th century hand-colored folio size McKenney and Hall engraving of a Native American entitled "Ahyouwaighs, Chief of the Six Nat...

London: R.H Laurie, 1823 Engraving on buff wove paper, 10 x 15 3/4 inches (252 x 398 mm), full margins. Age and light tone, as well as areas of light yellow discoloration from the e...

Medium: original etching. This impression on laid paper printed in 1868 for Philip Gilbert Hamerton's very scarce "Etching and Etchers". Plate size: 4 5/8 x 7 1/4 inches (116 x 182 m...

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...

Lithograph realized by Daumier in 1845, belonging to the Series "Les Gens de Justice" Table no. 6 of the Series. Hand monogrammed in the plate. Very good condition. Ref. Delteil ...

The sitter was born of humble origin near Chaliez in Polish Russia in November 1739. He was one of a family of six children, three of whom were of normal stature. He was brought into...

'Morchella Conica' Antique Swiss mushroom / fungi chromolithograph, lithographed by H Furrer after Fritz Leuba. The print is titled with the scientific name...

Armenian Bishop is an Artwork realized in 1828 by the Engraver, Giuseppe Capparoni (Rome 1800- 1879). Etching hand colored on ivory paper. Signed on plate and dated on the right mar...

Salone Square in Padua is a print realized by G. Riccio in the 19th century. Etching Hand-watercolored on paper. titled on the plate. Good conditions with foxing

The Patriarch Siro in Pontifical Dress is an Artwork realized in 1828 by the Engraver, Giuseppe Capparoni (Rome 1800- 1879). Etching hand colored on ivory paper. Signed on plate and...

Medium: original etching. Catalogue reference: White 1. This impression on laid paper was printed in 1880 for The American Art Review. The plate measures 6 1/2 x 9 3/8 inches; the sh...

Pair of aquatints with stipple-engraving, printed in colours and finished by hand, made for Brookshaw's most famous work "Pomona Britannica" or a "Collection of the Most Esteemed Fru...

London: Charles Joseph Hullmandel, 1839. Oil stick color lithograph on cream wove paper, 14 3/16 x 11 inches; (360 x 280 mm), full margins. Scattered light yellow spots of discolora...