Mid-19th Century Prints and Multiples

Medium: original etching. Printed on chine-colle paper in Paris by Delatre and published by the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1863. Image size: 4 x 7 1/2 inches (100 x 190 mm). Not signed.

Eagles is an etching hand colored realized by Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert - Johann Friedrich Naumann, Illustration from Natural history of ...

Bridge in Venice is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the government, of the...

Abeilles is a black and White etching realized by Alfred Emile Méry in the 1866.  Titled in the lower. Image size:24x31. Very good impression with wide margins and a very fresh in...

'River Stour, Suffolk' Mezzotint on steel by David Lucas (1802-1881) after John Constable (1776–1836). From 'English Landscape Scenery', 1855. John Constable RA was an English Romantic landscape...

Artist: John Gould (English, 1804-1881) Title: "Chrysocolaptes Xanthocephalus (Yellow-faced flameback)" (Vol. 6, Plate 37) Portfolio: The Birds of Asia Year: 1850-1883 Medium: Origin...

Before The Gate is a Lithograph on paper realized by Hégésippe Moreau in 1838. The artwork is in good condition. Hégésippe Moreau (1810-1838) was a French lyric poet. The romantic ...

"Deer Shooting in the Northern Woods" is an original hand-colored lithograph by Currier & Ives. It depicts a landscape with a hunter aiming his gun at a deer on a winter day. 10" x 14" art 19 1/2" x 23 1/4" 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. In 1907, faced with competitive pressures from advancements in offset printing and photo engraving, Chauncey closed the venerable lithography business and sold the printing equipment and lithographic stones to his shop foreman, Daniel W. Logan. Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives are laid to rest along with their families at the Greenwood Cemetery...

Escaping Family is a hand-colored lithograph on paper realized in 1846 ca. by an Anonymous artist of the mid-XIX century. Titled on the lower center in Italian" Famiglia in Fuga". ...

Hieroglyphics Alphabets is an Etching realized by Domenico Klemi Bonatti in the 1850s. Signed on the plate. Good condition with folding and foxing on margins. Domenico Klemi Bonat...

Customs - Kings of Armenia is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. Titled on the lower. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " H...

Mr.Monkey Painter Set Off is an original lithograph on ivory-colored paper realized by J.J. Grandville from Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux, 1852. Published by Manesq...

Bladder and Prostate Diseases   is a lithograph hand colored by Ottavio Muzzi for the edition of Antoine Chazal,Human Anatomy, Printers Batelli and Ridolfi, realized in 1843. Signed ...

French stipple engraving portraying a stately emperor figure, circa 1830. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a standard-size frame. Ar...

Lithograph realized by Daumier in 1859. Belongs to the Series "Ces Bons Parisien". Ref. Delteil 3241 Very good condition

This is an original first octavo edition John James Audubon hand-colored royal octavo lithograph entitled "American Oyster Catcher, Male", No. 65, Plate...

'1. Vigigne 2. Lama' (1. Vicuna 2' Llama) French engraving with original hand-colourimg, circa 1840.

This is one of the illustrations of " Dizionario di scienze naturali " (Natural sciences dictionary) edited by Battelli nel 1831.  The work was made of 29 volumes, containing hundred...

Physiologie du Flaneur is an original modern rare book illustrated by Honoré Daumier (1808, Marseille, France — died February 11, 1879, Valmondois) and published in 1841. Published ...

'A Dell, Helmingham Park, Suffolk' Mezzotint on steel by David Lucas (1802-1881) after John Constable (1776–1836). From 'English Landscape Scenery', 1855. John Constable RA was an English Romantic...

This is an original rare first edition John James Audubon hand-colored lithograph entitled "Iceland or Gyr Falcon", No. 4, Plate 19 from Audubon's "Birds of America, lithographed, pr...

Bokhara, Usbeks is a lithograph made by Auguste Wahlen in 1844. Hand colored. Good condition. At the center of the artwork is the original title "Bokhara, Usbeks". The work is pa...

London: Thomas McLean, 1835. Etching with hand coloring in watercolor on cream wove paper. 6 1/4 x 8 3/8 inches (157 x 210 mm), full margins. Initialed in the plate by Cruikshank, and bearing Frederick Marryat's anchor monniker. A well inked impression of this humorous print...

The present hand-colored lithograph presents the viewer with a hunting scene in a picturesque landscape. In the foreground, a man approaches two partridges as his two pointers prepare to flush them out. Beyond, a white fence draws our eyes to the homestead in the distance. Images like this one show how people in the United States were trying to identify themselves as a new nation in the North American landscape - as separate from their European counterparts but with similar similar and specific wildlife and magesties of nature. It also identifies hunting in this landscape as an American pastime. 9.25 x 12.5 inches, artwork 18.38 x 22 inches, frame Entitled bottom center "Partridge Shooting...

The Teeth is an original lithograph on ivory-colored paper, realized by Paul Gervais (1816-1879). The artwork is from The Series of "Les Trois Règnes de la Nature", and was published...

Uses and Customs - Bridge of Cassano is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of th...

Nakamura Nanji II as Otsuyu is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Hirosada (Japanese, active 1825–75) in 1851. Original Woodcut Chuban Tryptich, 1851. Nakamura Nanji II...

Uses and Customs - Contrada di Dora Grossa in Torino is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe:...

Lithograph realized by Daumier in 1845, belonging to the Series "Les Gens de Justice" Table no. 8 of the Series. Very good condition. Delteil 1344

'Convento di agagna nell' Isola Guam. Occupazioni domestiche in Guam.' Italian lithograph, c1841. Originally from 'Galleria universale di tutti i popoli del mondo' by Giuseppe Anton...

The Living Kite is an original Woodcut print realized in the late 19th century after Utagawa Kunisada. Good condition except for some damaged paper on the edge and Beautiful colore...

Correccion is an original artwork realized by Francisco Goya and published for the first time in 1799. Etching on wove paper. This artwork belongs to the Third Edition published in...

Ancient View of Alexandria is an original modern artwork realized in the mid-19th Century Original B/W Lithograph on Ivory Paper. Inscripted on the lower margin in Capital Letters...

Uses and Customs -  Ducal Palace in Modena is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History...

Torment of the Collar - Costumes is a Hand-colored lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " Hist...

Eleusinian Ceremonies is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the government, o...

Vous ne le croirez pas ma chère? is an original lithograph on ivory-colored paper realized by J.J. Grandville in the 19th Century. Good Conditions. Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard (13 S...

Lillebonne en 1848 is a black and White etching realized by George Snell in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower. Image size: 25x37. Very good impression with wide margins and a very f...

Return from Elba is an Etching realized by Auguste Raffet in 1837. Good conditions. The artwork is realized in a well-balanced composition. the artwork and belongs to the suite sui...

Uses and Customs - Temple of S Maria is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of th...

Ancient view from the Karmel Mountains is an original modern artwork realized in the mid-19th Century. Original B/W Lithograph on Ivory Paper. Inscripted on the lower margin in C...

This is a mid 19th century etching entitled "Rade de Bordeaux, Janvier" (Port Of Bordeaux In Winter), etched by Phillip Gilbert Hamerton after a drawing by Maxime Lalanne in London in 1868. The etching depicts many boats in the busy harbor of Bordeaux, including small sailboats, as well as tall ships. Another harbor is seen in the distance across the river on the left. Snow covered buildings are on the left and extending long distances in the distant background. Many people occupy the road and ground centrally and on the left along with some horses or mules attached to carts. The sky is a wintery gray. This etching is an excellent impression printed on thick chain-linked, laid, deckle-edge paper with wide margins, watermarked with a 2 in the lower left corner. It is signed in the plate in the lower left, the title and date are in the center and Bordeaux and the year are included in script along the top of a wall in the lower left of the engraving. The sheet measures 8.75" high by 12" wide. The print is in excellent condition. This etching is held by many museums and institutions, including The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. François Antoine Maxime Lalanne (1827-1886) was a leading French etcher and painter of landscapes and urban views, who was at the forefront of the French revival of etching during the 1860's. He grew up in Bordeaux, but he refined his artistic skills and worked in Paris. His art was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1852 and he continued to regularly show both etchings and paintings there until the mid 1880's. He was also the author of several important books on the subjects of etching and other graphic arts. He was a founding member of the Societe des Aquafortistes, along with Auguste Delatre, Cadart, Ribot and Bracquemond. Lalanne created over one hundred and fifty fine etchings. Lalanne's unique style of art influenced many French and English artists in the twentieth century. Philip Gilbert Hamerton (1834-1894) was a British artist, art critic and author. He was particularly focussed on contemporary graphic art and printmaking techniques. He frequently wrote about the theory of the English Etching...

Fujikawa is a woodcut print realized by Utagawa Hiroshige in 1833.  It is part of the suite "The Fifty-three Stations of Tokaido". Very good condition.

Que Locura is an original artwork realized by the great Spanish artist Francisco Goya in 1810. Original Etching on paper. The artwork belongs to the famous series "Los Desastres ...

The Dogs is an original lithograph on ivory-colored paper, realized by Paul Gervais (1816-1879). The artwork is from The Series of "Les Trois Règnes de la Nature", and was published ...

Temple of Saint Sophia is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the government, ...

Visconti and Sforza Families is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the govern...

This is a hand-colored folio sized lithograph entitled "Yunx indica" (Indian Wryneck) by John Gould from his monograph "The Birds of Asia", published in London in 1850-1883. The pri...

Uses and Customs - Certosa in Pavia is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the...

This is an original John James Audubon hand-colored royal octavo lithograph entitled "Prairie Wolf", No. 15, Plate LXXI, 71 from Audubon's "Quadrupeds of North America". It was drawn...

Portrait of Petrarque is an original modern artwork realized by Henri Grevedon in 1834. Original Black and White Lithograph on paper. Printed original by Lemercier, Paris, "Paris chez Aumont,rue JJ Rousseau N°10/ et chez Tessari et Cie du cloître Notre Dame N4". Hand-signed and dated on the lower right corner: H. Revedon 1834. Excellent conditions. Excellent black and white lithograph depicting the portrait of the great Italian author and poet Francesco Petrarca. The figure is in pose and express a great magniloquence and monumentality with a refined and elegant stroke. Henri Grévedon (Paris, 1776 - Paris, 1860). Grévedon studied painting in the Parisian workshop of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, professor of painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Henri Grévedon exhibited from 1798 to 1806 and received a second medal in 1790. He was a first class gold medal in 1805 and won the first prize of the torso in 1806. He competed without success for the Prix de Rome in 1805 and 1806. According to Henri Beraldi, he "traveled the world, going to seek success in Russia in 1806 where he became an associate of the Academy of Saint Petersburg. He stayed in Stockholm in 1812, then in London, finally retured to Paris in 1816. Soon he devoted himself completely to lithography, and found there a reputation which would not have come to him with painting". He executed many painted portraits, paintings and miniatures, then he drew directly on the lithographic stone, working in particular for the workshop of Charles Motte during the 1820s. At the Salon of 1824, he won for the second time a gold medal for first class. Among the personalities he represented between 1825 and 1845, there were many actresses and dancers of his time such as the Taglioni, Fanny...

L’îvrogne is an original lithograph realized by French artist Honoré Daumier in 1834, plate from Charivari. In good conditions. Included a frame. This lithograph is Representing, a gloomy man, with a desperate and serious look, beside him there is a hat on the ground and in his background, there are a couple hugging each other on the left and a lonely man...

Antique 19th century fern colour woodblock by Benjamin Fawcett after AF Lydon. From Edward J. Lowe’s 'Ferns: British and Exotic', 1867. Accompanied by a sheet of descriptive text. ...

Kasumigaseki Nokei is a polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e, ink and colour on paper) by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-1858). This plate is from the print suite Famous Places o...

Assemblée Nationale Comique is an original modern rare book illustrated by CHAM and written by Auguste Lireux (Rouen, 1814 - 1870, Bougival) in 1850. Published by Michel Lévy Frères –Paris. Original First Edition. Format: large 8°. The book includes 625 pages and 20 fully illustrated page lithographs. Mint conditions. Auguste Lireux (Rouen, 1814 - 1870, Bougival). Lireux began, out of college, by founding, in his hometown, a small newspaper, the Indiscret , whose sarcastic and biting tone made him many enemies and which earned him seven or eight duels, where he has almost always been injured. There he recounted the marital misadventures of his compatriots, a process which provided him with a great deal of copy, but which he had to put an end to when a chair-mender outraged in his reputation had not inflicted on him a correction which could have had very serious consequences if the painter Garneray had not come to his aid. Discouraged, in 1841 he went to Paris, where he founded La Patrie which was then regarded as an opposition newspaper. He entered several other newspapers, including the Revue et gazette des théâtres , which then had among its editors Édouard Thierry , the administrator of the Théâtre-Français, the Courrier français (1846), the Revue comique (1848), the Messenger from theaters...

Signed on plate with the Monogram of the artist “CM”. Original Prints. State III/III Passepartout included : 60 x 40 cm Image Dimensions : 24.5 x 18.5 cm This artwork is shipped fro...

Persian Cloth in 19th Century is a Hand-colored lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History...

Une Auberge is a black and White etching realized by Antoine Vollon (1833-1900) in the 1860s. Titled in the lower. Image Size: 32x23 Very good impression. Realized by Cadart for ...

Fourth Royal Guard Shooter Battalion is an original lithograph by Antonio Zezon. Naples 1856. Interesting colored lithograph which describes the royal guard shooters: on the left, an Individual in march...

Antique 19th century fern colour woodblock by Benjamin Fawcett after AF Lydon. From Edward J. Lowe’s 'Ferns: British and Exotic', 1867. Accompanied by a sheet of descriptive text. ...