Johann Baptist Homann. “Amplissima Regionis, Mississipi seu Provinciae Ludovicianae,” (Nuremberg: ca.1720). Latin and French text. 19 1/8 x 22 5/8″ at neat line. Copperplate engraving with bright, original full and outline hand color. Full margins. Excellent condition.
German cartographer Johann Homann’s “Louisiana Province” is one of the most attractive early maps of the American interior—as well as being politically provocative. It wonderfully represents the eastern half of North America, but focuses on the enormous region called “La Louisiane,” the ownership of which had been a political hot button issue between Spain and France throughout the 1700’s. Modeled after Delisle’s important “Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi” of 1718, the map offered here labels the territory west of the Appalachians as “La Louisiane” that assumed a French proprietorship that provoked…
John Melish. “The United States of America,” (Philadelphia: 1827 [1822]). Published in A Complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas…17 x 21 1/4″ at neat line. Copperplate engraving by B. Tanner with fine, bright original outline and full hand color. Excellent condition.
Offered here is an excellent example of this important early map of the United States showing a large portion of Mexico’s possessions following their independence in 1821. The territories west of the Mississippi River are just barely settled with Arkansa Territory, Missouri Territory, Michigan Territory, and Northwest Territory named. Texas and New Mexico are depicted as possessions of Mexico. The important map presented here greatly reflects the achievements of the Lewis and Clark, Pike, Humboldt, and Long expeditions. Though very similar to the earlier edition of this map, many surprising differences seem to occur…
W. H. Lizars. “United States & Texas. With All the Railways & Canals,”. (Edinburgh: ca.1842). Published in Lizar’s Edinburgh Geographical Atlas, page: LXIII. 16 1/4 x 20 1/2″ at neat line. Copperplate engraving with original outline color. Overall, excellent condition.
This fantastic map of the United States and Texas by W. H. Lizars shows the entirety of the country during the highly transitional period of the mid 19th century. A blue line delineates the separation of the organized east from the vast undeveloped expanse of the west. It is shown running south along the Mississippi River from the Canadian border, around the Missouri and Arkansa Territories, and down the western boundary of the Republic of Texas. To the west of this line lies a sweeping Missouri Territory and the Great American Desert…
George Catlin. “Catching the Wild Horse.” (London: 1844 [1845]). Folio plate no. 4 from Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio. First Edition. Deluxe issue. Hand-colored lithograph by Day & Haghe, mounted to hand-ruled card with inscribed number. Image size: 12 1/8 x 17 3/4.” Excellent condition.
During the 1830s, George Catlin lived for years among the various North American Indian tribes, studying their ways. His published works provide us with the most authentic anthropological record of these already vanishing people.
A young lawyer turned portraitist, George Catlin traveled west from his home in Pennsylvania in 1830 to fulfill his dream of recording on canvas the North American Indians and their way of life. It was his desire, he said, to paint “faithful portraits of their principal personages, both men and women, from each tribe, views of their villages, games, etc., and [to keep] full notes on their character and history. I designed, also, to procure their costumes, and a complete collection of their manufactures and weapons, and to perpetuate them in a Gallery Unique, for the instruction of the ages.”…
Gene Kloss. “Adobes in The Snow,” 1944. Etching. Image: 7 3/4 x 11 3/8″. Artist’s notation in pencil: “II”, in l. l. margin, indicating the print as an Artist’s Proof. Titled in pencil l. l. margin. Singed by the Artist in pencil l. r. Archivally framed. Excellent condition.
“Adobes in the Snow” encapsulates Gene Kloss’ intimacy with Southwestern subject matter; showing a few, low lying adobe homes blanketed in winter snow. Kloss was a master of design, working primarily from her mental impressions rather than from sketches or photographs. She described what guided her art as follows: “I want the finished print to enable the viewer to see the design, the subject matter from across the room, at arm’s length or under a magnifying glass—also upside-down for satisfactory abstract design.”…
John Taylor Arms. “Light and Shade, Taxco”, 1946. Etching. Image size: 10 1/2 x 13 3/4″. Artist’s notation in pencil: “II,” in l. l. margin, indicating the preferred second state with an edition of 185, printed by the British master printer David Strang. Signed and dated in pencil, l. r.: John Taylor Arms, 1946. Excellent condition.
John Taylor Arms is a major figure in the history of twentieth-century printmaking. Trained as an architect, he eventually turned his love of buildings and draughtsmanship to a mastery of the etching medium. Arms’ attention to detail and his genius for capturing the effects of light and shadow are highlighted in Light and Shade, Taxco, one of Arms’ most integral and large compositions. A tour-de-force of etching, the print won ten prizes and is listed as one of the artist’s master plates…
Doel Reed. “Picuris Pueblo—Winter,” 1954. Etching and aquatint. Image size: 9 13/16 x 15 7/8.” Signed in pencil, l.r: “Doel Reed, N.A.” Ed. 150. Matted and framed: 17 1/4 x 23 3/8.” Superb condition, by sight.
This scene is of Picuris Pueblo in Taos County, New Mexico, with the church being San Lorenzo de Picurís. It is a fine example of Reed’s landscape work with dramatic whites and blacks, angular lines, and modernist influence. “Picuris Pueblo—Winter” was a special print for the Rochester Print Club and is one of only six Reed prints with an edition number of 100 or more. It is held in the collections of the New York Public Library and the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester…
Charles M. Capps. “Mountain Mission,” 1967. Etching with aquatint. Artist’s Proof. Image size: 5 x 8 1/2″. Signed, l.r. Titled, l.l. Archivally framed. Excellent condition.
The subject of this print is the San Jose de Gracia church in Las Trampas, New Mexico, which is on the “High Road” through the Sangre de Christo Mountains between Santa Fe and Taos. The Spanish first settled Las Trampas in 1751. According to the National Park Service, the Las Trampas church is “one of the most-original and best-preserved examples of Spanish Colonial architecture in New Mexico.”…
