Winslow Homer’s Earliest Book Illustrations
Hunter's Ottawa Scenery, in the Vicinity of Ottawa City, Canada.
Ottawa, Canada: by the author, 1855.
Price: $3,000.00
About the item
Second edition (with text re-set and signed with letters). 19pp. Folding map, lithograph title page, and 14 oval tinted lithographed plates by Bufford of Boston, after drawings by Hunter drawn on the stone by Winslow Hunter and John Perry Newell. 1 vols. Small folio (13-1/2 x 10-1/4 inches). Winslow Homer’s Earliest Book Illustrations. Original brown blind-stamped cloth with gilt lettering on upper cover, rebacked in cloth, corners bumped and edges rubbed, binding shaken; a few smudges to margins of plates. TPL, 3563; Lande, 1861; Tatham, WINSLOW HOMER AND THE ILLUSTRATED BOOK, pp. 23-24.
Item #31242
Superb plates, and the first, largest and most impressive viewbook by this Canadian artist and designer (1823-1894), who subsequently published topographical works on Niagara and eastern Canada (see Lande 1862-866), including a "Panoramic Guide from Niagara Falls to Quebec" which was frequently reprinted.
As well as a fine folding map and the lithographed title page, the plates for his OTTAWA SCENERY, printed by Bufford in Boston, include:
(1) Bird’s Eye View of Chaudière Falls; (2) Rideau Falls; (3) View of Locks; (4) View from Barrack Hill - Looking Down the Ottawa; (5) View from Barrack Hill; (6) Junction of the Gatineau with the Ottawa river; (7) The Approach of the Suspension Bridge; (8) Suspension Bridge over Chaudière Falls; (9) The Big Kettle; (10) A Portion of the Chaudière Falls, from the North; (11) The Chasm, Chaudière Falls; (12) View from Interior of Chasm; (13) Timber Slide; (14) Natural Curiosity Ottawa River
Among its many attractions, this book represents the earliest known book work of Winslow Homer, who signed one plate for this edition (“View of Locks”); 8 are signed by Newell. The 5 others which are unsigned are“ attributable to Homer on grounds of style” (Tatham).
