Late 19th Century Prints and Multiples

Winslow Homer created this etching entitled “MENDING THE TEARS” in 1888. This is a lifetime impression signed by Homer and printed by the famous New York etcher George W. H. Ritchie. This piece is signed in pencil “Winslow Homer, N.A.” in the lower left above the etched remarque of an anchor. Etched above the image (top left) is “Copyright, 1888 by Winslow Homer N.Y.” and (top right) “G. W. H. Ritchie Imp.” Also etched in the plate (lower right) “Winslow Homer Sc.” ). The printed image size 15.25 x 21.5" (38.8 x 54.5 cm) plus margins – printed on Japan paper. This item is in very good condition and framed in 2.25 inch scooped molding finished in gold leaf with a rag stock bevel (mat edge) wrapped in metal leaf and rag stock top mat wrapped in silk. Glazed in TruVue Museum Glass. “Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was one of America's great artists of the 19th century and the sea...

'Einsiedlerkrebse' (Hermit crabs) German wood-engraving, circa 1895. 240mm by 155mm (sheet)

The conversation is an original lithograph artwork on ivory-colored paper, realized by the French draftsman Paul Gavarni (after) (alias Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier Gavarni, 1804-1866...

'Augenkrankheiten' (Eye Diseases) German chromolithograph, circa 1895. Central vertical fold as issued. 240mm by 305mm (sheet)

This original 1899 lithograph, Le Roi de Rome – L’Aiglon, by the renowned French illustrator and caricaturist Charles Léandre, is a rare and evocative piece from the Belle Époque era...

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

'Position' Chromolithograph, 1874, after Ape (Carlo Pellegrini 1839-1889) Vanity Fair portrait of the Duke of Devonshire. 380mm by 260mm (sheet)

Louis Legrand, 'The Serenade', soft-ground etching, drypoint, and aquatint, c. 1895, edition 20. Signed and numbered '9/20' in pencil. Annotated '20 proofs taken' in pencil, bottom l...

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

Antique bird egg colour woodblock , 1880, from Francis Orpen Morris’, 'A Natural History of the Nests & Eggs of British Birds', 1875. The woodblocks ...

Old Samurai is a Woodcut print realized in late 19 century after Utagawa Kunisada. Good condition and Beautiful colored woodblock print, included a cardboard passpartout (46x32 cm...

'Tacsonia' Process print from Frederick William Hulme’s ‘Familiar Wild Flowers’, circa 1890. Hulme was known as a teacher and an amateur botanist. He was the Professor of Freehand ...

'Eglise de L'abbaye de St Denis', tinted lithograph by Felix Benoist (1818-1896). From a series of lithographs depicting the famous buildings of Paris - 'Paris dans sa Splendeur', p...

Signed with the artist's initials lower left From: Les Douze Mois de 1889 As published in Vol. 9, No. 425 of Les Hommes d'Aujourd'hui. Published by Sagot, Paris Proof before letters...

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...

'Gloxinia' Process print from Frederick William Hulme’s ‘Familiar Wild Flowers’, circa 1890. Hulme was known as a teacher and an amateur botanist. He was the Professor of Freehand ...

after Carl Otto Czeschka, (1878-1960), Austrian A leading member of the Vienna Secession and later the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshop), Carl Otto Czeschka was a vital figu...

'Strahlinge' (Protozoa - Radiolarians or Radioza) German lithograph, circa 1895. Key to protozoa in German below the image. 250mm by 305mm (sheet). Central vertical fold as iss...

La Lidia, the oldest and most popular bullfighting magazine was founded by Julian Palacios the owner of a prestigious lithograph and engraving workshop in Madrid. These colorful...

Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn, After by Amand Durand, Dutch (1606 - 1669) - Jesus Christ Mis Au Tombeau (B86), Year: 1878 (of original 1654), Medium: Heliogravure on Laid Paper, Size: ...

The 1897 original exhibition poster by Henry Thiriet for Pierrefort Estampes et affiches is a beautiful example of late 19th-century French graphic design. Created to promote an exhi...

Thirsty: The Appearance of a Town Geisha - a So-Called Wine-Server - in the Ansei Era Color woodcut, 1888 Signed; Seal: Taiso (see photo) Plate 22 from the series "Thirty-two Aspects...

Opus IV, Simplicius in der Waldeinode (Simplicius in the Wilderness) belongs to a series of prints called Intermezzi realized by Max Klinger, published by Nurnberg: Stroefer, 1881. ...

'Snowy Feverfew' Process print from Frederick William Hulme’s ‘Familiar Wild Flowers’, circa 1890. Hulme was known as a teacher and an amateu...

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...

"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...

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...

Armand Rassenfosse La Danse, 1897 Original lithograph Printed signature in the plate On paper 40 x 31 cm (c. 16 x 12") INFORMATION : Published by 'Estampe Moderne, Paris, 1897-1899...

A fashionable brunette smiles playfully at her black cat while enjoying JOB cigarette papers. Lithograph of Georges Meunier’s Papier à Cigarettes JOB, ...

Bear And Elf from "Intermezzi" is a print realized by Max Klinger in 1881. Signature and number of the print on plate. Black and white etching and aquatint. Original title: Bär und...

Steinlen, Theophile "Lait Pur Sterilise de la Vingeanne" Original lithograph, c. 1894 Rennert 12 Printed by Charles Verneau, Paris Bright Fresh Colors, RARE...

Giovanni Mataloni Incandescence, 1897 Original lithograph Printed signature in the plate Printed on paper vélin Size 40 x 29 cm (c. 15.7 x 11.4") INFORMATION : Plate 72 of "Les Maîtres de l'Affiche", Paris, 1897, printed by l'Imprimerie Chaix. Bears the blind stamp of the editor bottom right. This image was created for an Italian advertisement...

Stone lithograph sepia plate of Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread from Alphonse Mucha’s masterpiece of mysticism, Le Pater. Printed by ...

Lucien LEFEVRE Cacao lacté (Milky cocoa), 1895 Lithograph Printed signature in the plate On vellum Size 39 x 29 cm (c. 15.3 x 11.4") INFORMATION : Plate...

'Flowering Shrubs' Antique English flower botanical chromolithograph.

The gallery is opening its private collection of art nouveau and art deco paintings, lithographs and antiques for the first time in more than twenty years. Presenting an original li...

Nishiki-e (woodcut print), in vertical oban format (31x20.5) realized by Mizuno Toshikata in 1893 (Meiji 26). Belongs to the Series "Sanjûroku Kasen" (Thirty-Six Beauties in Compari...

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...

'Eduard Strauss' Chromolithograph, 1895. Vanity Fair musician portrait of Eduard Strauss (1835 – 1916) the Austrian composer. 400mm by 270mm (sheet)

Lithograph of George de Feure’s 1896 theatrical Art Nouveau poster promoting Mistinguett’s role as Hélyett in Marjolaine. Hélyett is shown in a delicate pastel palette, enveloped b...

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...

Albrecht Durer, After by Amand Durand, German (1471 - 1528) - Les Offres d'Amour, Year: 1873, Medium: Heliogravure, Image Size: 6 x 5.25 inches, Size: 6.5 x 5.75 in. (16.51 x 14....

Signed in the right center edge of the image From: Les Douze Mois de 1889 As published in Vol. 9, No. 425 of Les Hommes d'Aujourd'hui. Published by Sagot, Paris Proof before letters...

'Les Arts Décoratifs - Etoffe de Genes' Depicts fabric from the 17th century. From 'Les Arts Decoratifs a toutes les epoques', printed by Lemercier & Cie, Paris. 300mm by 200mm (i...

Medium: original lithograph. This impression on cream wove paper is from the deluxe Large Paper Edition of 500, published in 1896. This is one of the beautiful and subtle lithographs...

In this 1892 illustrated program for Mirages, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, a key figure of the Nabis movement, extends the reach of modern art deep into the realm of performance. Created for...

In the realm of Belle Époque Paris, Jules Chéret emerges as a luminary, casting his artistic brilliance on the city's vibrant cultural scene. Known as the "father of the modern poste...

Auguste Rodin, French (1840 -1917) - Buste de Bellone, Year: 1883, Medium: Etching, signed in pencil, Image Size: 5.25 x 3.5 inches, Size: 13 x 9 in. (33.02 x 22.86 cm), Frame Si...

Paysage d'Italie is an artwork realized by Corot in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher Alfre...

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...

This circa 1895 original poster titled "Les Grands Boulevards", created by the renowned French illustrator SEM (Georges Goursat), captures the vibrant and atmospheric essence of Pari...

Stone lithograph sepia plate of Our Father Who Art in Heaven from Alphonse Mucha’s masterpiece of mysticism, Le Pater. Printed by F. Champenois, published by Henri Piazza in Paris in an edition of 510, 1899. “Le Pater is the perfect convergence of three important movements at the close of the 19th century: Art Nouveau, Mysticism, and Religion. Art Nouveau, through its respect and honor of Nature, promotes the idea of a spirit of energy coursing through all things–a tenet of Mysticism–that finds foundation in the traditions of Mucha's personal relationship with the imagery of Religion. Le Pater gave Mucha a venue to communicate his beliefs specifically through his unique approach to Art and the coded language he had been learning through his devotion to Masonic teachings. He combined the aesthetics of Medieval manuscripts with Moorish arabesques, Byzantine mandalas, and Classical Renaissance melodrama to create a body of work that guided viewers across the gap between the ancient and the modern. The published plates for Le Pater were struck by Champenois on December 20, 1899 in an edition of 510 copies with the express agreement that they never be reprinted. As much of Mucha's work had been commercialized by Champenois due to numerous printings across multiple mediums, by this point he felt he had earned the right to insist on this deeply personal work existing only in the original release he had envisioned. The title page, prayer plates, and illuminated manuscript pages...

An emblem of the Belle Époque's fascination with the exotic, this original 1890 poster by Jules Chéret—often called the father of the modern poster—captures the spirit of late 19th-c...

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...

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...

Artist edition of 38 on Imperial Japon paper. Genossenschaft Pan GmbH, Berlin, publisher; Dr. C Wolf & Sohn, Munich.

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

LEBAS Léonie (19th-20th) - Paris Belle Epoque Genre Scene - Oil on wood in pair - Copper leaf frames. Wood Dim (each) : 22 X 16 cm - Dim frame (eac...

Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn, After by Amand Durand, Dutch (1606 - 1669) - Ephraim Bonus (B278), Year: 1878 (of original 1647), Medium: Heliogravure, Image Size: 8 x 6.75 inches, Size...

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...