Mid-19th Century Prints and Multiples

Le Port de Monaco is an artwork realized by Appian. Etching, realized in 1874. Sheet 158 x 237 mm.. Curtis and Prouté 36. Meeting of a very beautiful proof on white laid paper, f...

Lung Diseases is a lithograph hand colored by Ottavio Muzzi for the edition of Antoine Chazal,Human Anatomy, Printers Batelli and Ridolfi, realized in 18...

Estan Calientes is an original artwork realized by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya and published for the first time in 1799. Original etching on paper. The plate is part of the Third Edition of "Los Caprichos" that was published in 1868 by the Calcografia Nacional for the Real Academia. Full edition includes 80 original plates. Plate N. 13. Numbered on the upper corner. Titled on the lower central margin "Estan Calientes" (They feel warm). Excellent conditions. It seems that Goya first...

Red Breasted Merganser PL 58 from a rare black and white edition of Prideaux John Selby’s two volume set of 222 engravings “Illustrations of British Ornithology”. These original...

Les Tables Tournantes (…) is a original b/w lithographed plate (n. 10) from La Fluidomanie. This is a satiric series composed of 12 plates of caricatures “de mœurs” (of behaviours), realized by Honoré Daumier (France, 1808-1879) and published on the French Periodical, Le Charivari between May and June 1853. Printed by Charles Trinocq and edited by the Maison Martinet, Paris. Original Title: Les Tables Tournantes moralisant les coulisses des théâtres (Turning tables...

"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...

Greek Theatre 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 la...

costumes of the 19th century 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...

Paysage d'Italie is a black and White etching realized by Pontus Cinier in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower. Image size: 15x26. Very good impression with wide margins and a very fr...

L'Affut is a black and White etching realized by A. de Balleroy in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower. Image size: 27 x 22. Very good impression with wide margins and a very fresh in...

La Societe Des Aqua Fortistes is a black and White etching realized by Alfred Cadart in 1862.  Titled in the lower. It was realized as frontispiece of the famous collection of "Soc...

Une Discussion Theologique is a black and White etching realized by Edouard Moyse in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower Image Size: 32x23 Very good impression. Realized for the "Soc...

Chimpanzee 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 publishe...

Jeune Fille de l'ile Pitcairn is a hand colored lithograph realized by Auguste Wahlen in 1844. Good conditions. The artwork belongsto the Suite Moeurs, usages et costumes de tous l...

Uses and Customs -Portuguese 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...

Uses and Customs - Bohemian 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 governm...

Uses and Customs - Man From Moscow 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 ...

Customs - Mexican calendar is alithograph on paper realized in 1862. Titled on the lower. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all t...

Map of Battle of Waterloo is an Etching realized by Pierre François Tardieu in 1837. Good conditions. The artwork is realized in a well-balanced composition. the artwork and belong...

Arabic Girl is a lithograph made by Auguste Wahlen in 1844. Hand colored. Good condition. At the center of the artwork is the original title "Jeune Fille Arabe". The work is part...

New Brighton is an etching realized in 1845 by W. H. Bartlett. Signed on the plate. Titled on the lower center. Good conditions with slight foxing. The artwork is beautifully re...

La Peche is a black and White etching realized by Charles-André Malardot in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower. Image size: 25x17. Very good impression with wide margins and a very f...

Notre Dame is an original modern artwork realized in the Mid-19th Century. Original B/W Lithograph on Ivory Paper. Inscripted on the lower central margin: Notre Dame - Cathedral i...

Heart Diseases is a lithograph hand colored by Ottavio Muzzi for the edition of Antoine Chazal, Human Anatomy, Printers Batelli and Ridolfi, 1843. The work belongs to the Atlante ge...

Langur 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 in...

Le Soir au Village is a black and White etching realized by Otto Weber in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower Image Size: 26x32 Very good impression. Realized for the "Société des Aq...

Strasburg Cathedral is an original modern artwork realized in the Mid-19th Century. Original B/W Lithograph on Ivory Paper. Inscripted on the lower central margin: Strasburg Cathe...

The custody is as barbarous as the crime (Tan barbara la seguridad como el delito) is an artwork realied by Francisco Goya y Lucientes, 1867. Paris: Delâtre, 1867. Etching and burin. cm. 10.5x8.4.Sheet 21x16.2. Excellent proof of III state and first edition after the appearance of the letter and the bevel of the plate, published in the Gazette des Beau-Arts, vol. XXII, p. 196. Ref. Harris 26 Intact sheet with wide margins. Slight exposure yellowing around image. Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Fuendetodos, March 30, 1746 - Bordeaux, April 16, 1828) was a Spanish painter and engraver. Considered the pioneer of modern art, he was one of the greatest Spanish painters who lived between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His paintings, drawings and etchings of him reflected the ongoing historical upheavals and influenced the most important contemporary and following century painters. Goya is often referred to as the last of the old masters and the first of the moderns. Born into a middle-class family in 1746 in Aragon, he was a pupil of painting from the age of 14 to José Luzán y Martínez, later moving to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs. In 1786 he became court painter to the Spanish crown and this first part of his career was characterized by numerous portraits of members of the Spanish aristocracy and royal family, as well as by the production of rococo tapestries for the royal palace. In 1793 he suffered from an undiagnosed serious illness which left him deaf, after which his work became progressively darker and more pessimistic. His subsequent paintings seem to reflect a bleak vision of existence, which contrasts with his resounding social ascent: in 1799, in fact, he became Primer Pintor de Cámara (First Court Painter), the highest rank for a Spanish court painter . In late 1799, commissioned by Godoy, he completed his Maja desnuda, a remarkably bold nude for the time and clearly inspired by the style of Diego Velázquez. In the early 19th century he painted The Family of Charles IV, again influenced by Velázquez. In 1807, Napoleon led the Grand Army in the Peninsular War against Spain. During the conflict Goya remained in Madrid and, although he never expressed his thoughts in public, it seems that these facts affected him deeply, as can be seen from some of his works such as The Disasters of War, The 2nd of May 1808, The 3rd May 1808. Other works of his maturity include a wide variety of paintings concerning madness, asylums, witches, fantastic creatures, and religious and political corruption, which suggest that he feared for his mental and physical health. His later period culminates with the Black Paintings of 1819-1823, made in the Quinta del Sordo, his home on the outskirts of Madrid where he lived, disillusioned by political and social developments in Spain, in a situation of almost isolation. Finally, in 1824, Goya decided to abandon Spain to retire to the French city of Bordeaux...

Figure of the Bread which they use in the Eucharist is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: ...

Grand Terrace, Brighton is an original modern artwork realized in the Mid-19th Century. Original B/W Lithograph on Ivory Paper. Inscripted on the lower central margin in Capital L...

Havre is an original modern artwork realized in the Mid-19th Century. Original B/W Lithograph on Ivory Paper. Inscripted on the lower central margin in Capital Letters: Havre. Pa...

Sleeping Dog is an original drawing on paper, realized by an Anonymous artist of the XIX century. There is The state of preservation of the artwork is ver...

The Prince Riding On A Grasshopper And Beetles Troop is an original lithograph on ivory-colored paper realized by J.J. Grandville from Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux...

Whitby is an etching realized in 1845 by Edward Francis Finden. Signed on the plate. Titled on the lower center, from the series of "Ports of Great Britain" The artwork is beautif...

The Monkey 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 publishe...

Vie Privée et Publiques des Animaux is an original lithographs on ivory-colored paper realized by J.J. Grandville from Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux, 1852. Publishe...

This is an original 19th century John James Audubon hand-colored lithograph entitled "Hare Indian Dog", No. 27, Plate CXXXII, 132, from Audubon's "Quadruped...

Uses and Customs - Soldiers 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 governme...

Artist: Lady Jane Webb Loudon (Brittish, 1800 - 1858) 9.5 x 8 in. page. 12 x 14 in. frame. A color lithographic plate from The Ladies' Flower-Garden of British Wildflowers. By Mrs. ...

Navy: Seafaring Students is a lithograph by Antonio Zezon. Naples 1855. Interesting colored lithograph which describes the Army of the Sea: in the lithograph there are a Seafaring S...

Adoration de la Croix le Vendredi Saint en Italie is a black and White etching realized by Henri Guérard in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower. Image size: 32x24. Very good impressio...

Le General Grant is a black and White etching realized by Louis-Sébastien Mercier in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower. Image size: 32x24. Very good impression with wide margins and...

Rue St. Nicolas a Blois is a black and White etching realized by Emile Louis Vernier in 1863  Titled in the lower Image Size: 31x23 Very good impression. Realized for the "Sociét...

Merchant Monkeys 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 & Harvar...

Esto sí que es leer is an original etching realized by the great Spanish artist Francisco Goya and published for the first time in 1799. Etching on wove paper....

Uses and Customs - Temple of Sofia 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 ...

Le Borriquero is a black and White etching realized by Louis Lembard in 1863.  Titled in the lower Image Size: 32x24 Very good impression. Ref. - Maxime Lalanne, Traite de La Gr...

This is an original 19th century hand-colored McKenney and Hall lithograph of a Native American entitled "Meta-Koosega, Chippeway Warrior,...

Persian Dervish is a lithograph made by Auguste Wahlen in 1844. Hand colored. Good condition. At the center of the artwork is the original title "Derviche persan". The work is pa...

Uses and Customs - Cochinchinois, Asia 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 ...

La Priere is a black and White etching realized by Théodule Ribot in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower Image Size: 23x31 Very good impression. Realized by Cadart for the "Société d...

Image dimensions: 11.5 x 14.7 cm Vie of Taranto is an original black and white etching on paper, realized by the Italian engraver Achille Parboni. Printed as a plate of the prints ...

Uses and Customs - Ukrainian 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...

Ancient African Customs is a lithograph made by Auguste Wahlen in 1844. Hand colored. Good condition. At the center of the artwork is the original title "Africa" and subtitle "Com...

Dans les Landes is a black and White etching realized by Armand Queyroy in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower Image Size: 32x23 Very good impression. Reali...

Etang de Fayelles is a black and White etching realized by Tancrède Abraham in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower Image Size: 21x32 Very good impression. Realized for the "Société d...

Flamingo is an Etching hand colored realized by Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert - Johann Friedrich Naumann, Illustration from Natural history of birds in pictures, published by Stuttg...

Le Mets Brule is a black and White etching realized by F. Ribot in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower Image Size: 31x22 Very good impression. Realized for the "Société des Aquaforti...

Sous les Murs de Teheran is a black and White etching realized by Jules Laurens in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower Image Size: 23x32 Very good impression. Realized for the "Socié...

Scènes de la Vie Privée et Publique des Animaux is an original modern rare book illustrated by Jean Jacques Grandville (Nancy, 1803 – Vanves, 1...