Mid-19th Century Prints and Multiples

The Sepulchre of Ladislao is an etching engraved by Augusto Fornari, an artist who lived in Rome between 1812 and 1864. The paper sheet presents the signature “Fornari inc.” engraved...

This is an original 19th century duotone lithograph entitled "The Ghawazees, or Dancing Girls of Cairo" by David Roberts, from his Egypt and Nubia volumes of the large folio edition,...

This is an original 19th century duotone lithograph entitled "The Letter-Writer" by David Roberts, from his Egypt and Nubia volumes of the large folio edition, published in London by...

This witty lithograph is by the 19th Century French satirist Honoré Daumier. The print portrays a pair of lawyers, both dressed for court, one lawyer furtively speaking to the other....

'Blandfordia Flame - Flame-flowered Blandfordia' Botanical lithograph of an Australian native plant with original hand-colouring , 1854, by Walter Hood Fi...

Exceptional, brilliant impression and colors from the extremely rare 1st edition Kataoka Nizayemon(?) Color woodcut, 1860 From the series: "Contemporary Brocade Mirror Portraits" Pub...

These colored engravings are from Edward Joseph Lowe's 1861 book "Beautiful Leaved Plants. Being a Description of the Most Beautiful Leaved Plants ...

A hand-colored lithograph by Joseph Nash of the Frontespice "The Mansions of England in the Olden Time", 1839-1849, printed by Charles Joseph Hullmandel (Pub. London: T. M'Lean, 1839...

David Roberts: 1796-1864. Very important and well Listed 19th century Scottish artist. He has had Auction results for paintings in excess of $1 million. Nevertheless, he is most reco...

UNION POND, WILLIAMSBURGH, L. I. [sic] is a lithograph printed in color in circa 1862. It was published by Thomas & Eno, 37 Park Row, N.Y. The printed image size is 16 3/4 x 27 in...

Stage 48 of the 53 Stages of the Tokaido - Japanese Woodblock on Rice Paper Woodblock print of clothing vendors by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-1858). Originally printed in 183...

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...

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...

HONORE DAUMIER (1808 – 1879) FOR A POOR AMERICAN PLEASE / POUR UN PAUVRE AMERICAIN S’IL VOUS PLAIT, 1835 (DR 108 i/iii:: LD 108) Lithograph as published in La Caricature February ...

Les Vendagnes is an artwork realized by Charles François Daubigny in the 1870s. Etching. Image size:20x33 Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on ...

Medium: original etching. Catalogue reference: B53 iii/iii. Published in London in 1868 for the rare first volume of P. G. Hamerton's "Etching and Etchers". This impression on laid p...

Artist: John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) Title: "Wilson’s Petrel - Mother Carey’s Chicken" (Plate 460, No. 92) Portfolio: The Birds of America, F...

Original hand colored engraving from "Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle." Paris, 1849. Sheet size: 6" w x 6" h. Displayed in a custom, archival gray mat.

This is an original 19th century duotone lithograph entitled "Minarets and Grand Entrance of the Metwaleys, at Cairo" by David Roberts, from his Egypt and Nubia volumes of the large ...

This is an original 19th century duotone lithograph entitled "The Gate of the Metwalis, or Bab Zuweyleh, Cairo" by David Roberts, from his Egypt and Nubia volumes of the large folio ...

G. Paterson "Dinner Party at a Mandarin's House" Original Engraving After T. Allom C.1840 Original engraving Dimensions 8" wide x 5" high The frame measures 20.5" wide x 18.5" hig...

Ancient View of Lago Maggiore is an original modern artwork realized in Italy in the first half of the 19th Century. Original Lithograph on Ivory Paper...

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 ...

"CROQUIS D'ÉTÉ (Plate No. 5) LD 3203" is a 2nd state lithograph by Honore Daumier. Daumier initialed the work in the lower left corner. It depicts a man and a woman sitting at a tabl...

Uses and Customs - Como Cathedral 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 g...

James Whistler (1834-1903), Venus, 1859. Etching and drypoint, printed in black ink on laid paper, an impression in the second (final) state: there was no published edition. 6 x 9 inches (15 x 22.6 cm) sheet 73/8 x 117/8 inches (18.8 x 30.3 cm) Reference: Kennedy 59; Glasgow 60 A very fine impression. A study of Héloïse, ‘Fumette’, asleep in bed, her head pressed into the pillow and the bedclothes covering her lower legs. This is one of three portraits Whistler made of Fumette in 1859: one of the others shows her standing and in the third only her head and shoulders are depicted. Venus is a work in the Realist tradition, and may be compared with Courbet’s nudes of the same period. The artist may also have had in mind Rembrandt’s study of Antiope in his etching Jupiter and Antiope. Venus was never published and there is no record of it being shown until 1898 when it was included in an Exhibition of Etchings, Drypoints and Lithographs by Whistler at H. Wunderlich & Co., New York. To have been overlooked for exhibition until so late in Whistler’s life might suggest that the subject was considered improper. Frederick Wedmore, whose catalogue of Whistler’s etchings...

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 ...

Disco, Discobolus, etc 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, ...

This is an original 19th century duotone lithograph entitled "Side View of the Great Sphinx" by David Roberts, from his Egypt and Nubia volumes of the large folio edition, published ...

Courtesan is an original modern artwork realized by Keisai Eisen in the first half of the 19th Century. Signed and inscribed on plate. Total dimension...

Uses and Customs - Etruscan Burial 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 ...

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

The Dutiful Youth of Mino Province Collecting Wood to Warm His Old Father Color woodcut, c. 1842-43 Signed and sealed lower right (see photo) From the Series: "Honcho nijushi-ko" (Tw...

This is an original 19th century John James Audubon hand-colored first octavo edition lithograph entitled "Marsh Hare", No. 4, Plate XVIII, 18, from Audubon's "Quadrupeds of North America", printed and colored by Nagel & Weingaertner and published in New York in 1849. It depicts a pair of Marsh Hares/rabbits, presumably a male and a female, lying on grass, nose to nose, with plants in the background. This antique hand-colored Audubon quadruped lithograph has a few faint spots, but the print is otherwise in very good condition. The sheet measures 7" high and 10.5" wide. The descriptive text pages, 151-156, from Audubon's original publication are included. John James Audubon (1785-1851) was a naturalist and artist. He was initially unsuccessful financially prior to the publication of his famous work “The Birds of America”, spending time in debtor’s prison...

Placenta Diseases is a lithograph hand colored by Ottavio Muzzi for the edition of Antoine Chazal,Human Anatomy, Printers Batelli and Ridolfi, realiz...

"Caricatura Robert Macaire Negociant" is a lithograph by Honore Daumier. It was published February 24, 1837. Original Text: Robert Macaire, Négociant. Hé bien ! Monsieur Macaire, v...

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

Diseases of the Larynx, Trachea and Thyroid Body is a lithograph hand colored by Ottavio Muzzi for the edition of Antoine Chazal,Human Anatomy, Printers Batelli and Ridolfi, realized...

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

Deseaes of the Stomach of  Epiploon is a lithograph hand colored by Ottavio Muzzi for the edition of Antoine Chazal,Human Anatomy, Printers Batelli and Ridolfi, realized in 1843. Si...

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

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (Hiroshige Ando 1797-1858) Title: No.96 "Meisho Edo Hyakkei" Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (名所江戸百景) Size: O-ban 大判 Age: 1856

The present hand-colored lithograph was produced as part of the funeral and mourning culture in the United States during the 19th century. Images like this were popular as ways of remembering loved ones, an alternative to portraiture of the deceased. This lithograph shows a man, woman and child in morning clothes next to an urn-topped stone monument. Behind are additional putto-topped headstones beneath weeping willows, with a steepled church beyond. The monument contains a space where a family could inscribe the name and death dates of a deceased loved one. In this case, it has been inscribed to a young Civil War soldier: William W. Peabody Died at Fairfax Seminary, VA December 18th, 1864 Aged 18 years The young Mr. Peabody probably died in service for the Union during the American Civil War. Farifax Seminary was a Union hospital and military headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The hospital served nearly two thousand soldiers during the war time. Five hundred were also buried on the Seminary's grounds. 13.75 x 9.5 inches, artwork 23 x 19 inches, frame Published before 1864 Inscribed bottom center "Lith. & Pub. by N. Currier. 2 Spruce St. N.Y." Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and TruVue Conservation Clear glass, housed in a gold gilded moulding. 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...

Uses and Customs - Map  of St. Peter's Basilica is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " Hi...

"Ichimura Hazaemon as Hatsuyumeya Mitsujiro" is a woodcut print by Toyoharu Kunichika in red, blue, and black. 14" x 9 1/2" art 20 3/4" x 16 3/4" framed From the series “First Per...

Uses and Customs -Interior  of St. Peter's Basilica is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: ...

Title continues: Built by Mr. Henry Steers, Greenpoint, L. I. Owned by Mr. James Gordon Bennett, Jr. Winner of the Great Ocean Yacht Race, With the ...

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 hundreds ...

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 hundreds ...

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 hundreds ...

Uterus 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 on plate on the ...

Customs - Persian palanquins 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 : ...

Customs - Persian Kings 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: " Hist...

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

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

Brain 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...

Brain 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...

Utagawa Hiroshige II (1829-1869), 'Kintai Bridge at Iwakuni in Suo Province' (Suo iwakuni kintai-bashi), from the series 'One Hundred Views of Famous Pla...