Western Scenery - photo 1
Western Scenery - photo 2

Western Scenery

Lot 223
26.05.2022 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 113 400
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 752914
Lot 223 | Western Scenery
Estimate value
$ 30 000 – 50 000
Western SceneryWilliam Wells, 1851WELLS, William, text. Western Scenery; or, Land and River, Hill and Dale in the Mississippi. Cincinnati: Otto Onken, 1851."One of the great rarities of Midwestern pictorial Americana" (Eberstadt). This work depicts the growing towns and thriving ports of the Mississippi Valley, with purple prose by William Wells, aka "the Literary Department." The plates are: "Cincinnati, taken from Belle Vue on Sycamore Hill"; "Louisville, Ky. Taken from the Public Landing"; "Lexington, Ky. Taken from the Transylvania University"; "Mouth of the Licking River, Ky. Opposite Cincinnati"; "The Ohio State Fair. At Camp Washington near Cincinnati"; "State Capitol, Columbus Oh"; "Devil’s Bake-Oven & Grand Tower, On the Mississippi"; "Cathedral, Places d’Armes, New Orleans"; "Mechanic’s Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio"; "New Orleans"; "View on the Great Miami. Near North Bend"; "Pittsburgh, Pa"; "Maysville, Ky"; "Memphis, Ten."; "Galena, Ill"; "Burlington, Iowa"; and "Vicksburgh, Miss". The views are quite beautiful and impressively printed, the mostly German-trained printers of Cincinnati were producing work as fine as anywhere. We trace only one other complete copy at auction in the past 70 years. America Pictured to the Life 12(note); Coleman, Kentucky History, 2906; Howes W-255 ("c", calling for 19 plates though only the NYPL copy has 19, 17 is the usual number); Peters, America on Stone, p.303.Quarto (295 x 232mm). Lithographed title-page with five vignettes, 17 lithographed plates, some after drawings by Adolphus Forbriger, lithographed by F. von Laer and E. Bott, printed by Otto Onken (light foxing to title and tissue guards, mostly marginal foxing and few light stains, some tiny edge chips to first plate). Single page prospectus laid in; without dedication leaf. 19th-century ribbed cloth (rebacked, modern paper label, hinges cracked, endpapers foxed). Custom clamshell box. Provenance: full-page gift inscription from James M. Stern of Cincinnati, dated 24 May 1852.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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