LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 Feb Americana Grand Format Auction #659  / 

25345

Edward S Curtis Portfolio Photogravure Plate 279

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:1,200.00 - 1,800.00 USD
Edward S Curtis Portfolio Photogravure Plate 279
<B>Edward S. Curtis Portfolio Photogravure "Wisham Girl, Profile" Plate 279,</B></I> copyright 1910. Original image size 10.25" x 15.25" with the plate number at upper left, title at lower left, and captioned at the bottom "From Copyright Photograph 1910 by E. S. Curtis" and "Photogravure John Andrew & Son". Matted and custom framed to an overall size of 21.5" x 27.5". The Wisham lived along the banks of the Columbia River. Curtis discusses this girl in Volume 8 of <I>The North American Indian,</B></I> "Men and women wore a long dentalium shell in the nose: every one wore this nasal ornament, for anybody without it 'looked like a slave.' For special occasions the men wore deerskin shirts and leggings, and women, in addition to the loin cloth, a collar like cape that half concealed the breasts. This was increased in length with their growing modesty until it reached the knees and had evolved into the usual woman's skin dress made by fastening two deerskins, or preferably mountain sheep skins, together. The skins were beautifully dressed, and decorated with porcupine quills and shell beads, and later with white and blue beads secured from the traders." <BR><BR>Between 1923 and 1928 Curtis relinquished his copyright to all the photographs and text for <I>The North American Indian</B></I> to the Morgan Company in exchange for the funds necessary to publish the remaining volumes. By that time, he had completed 17 of the 10 volumes. In 1935 the Morgan Company liquidated all assets of The North American Indian, Inc., selling 19 complete sets of <I>The North American Indian,</B></I> several thousand individual prints, and all of the 2200+ original copper plates to Charles Lauriat Books of Boston, Massachusetts for the sum of $1,000 plus future royalties. Lauriat finds buyers for his nineteen complete sets and then assembles fifty more, supplementing the unbound material with 'new prints on different paper' bringing the total number of marketed sets to 291". This is one of these prints and is considered to be an original, is <B>not</B></I> one of the 1970s/1980s restrikes.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Framed - with Glass, Medium (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
Sign In to Bookmark Lot