Charting America, from New York to the Western Frontier

Albert Bierstadt, Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie. London: Thomas McLean, 1869. Estimate $12,000–15,000.

Originally issued by Thomas McLean as a pair to “The Rocky Mountains (Landers Peak).” It was reported at the time that no fewer than 20, and as many as 30, lithographic stones were used to capture the rich, sumptuous palette of the original painting, which is now in the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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William Birch [artist] – Samuel Seymour [engraver], The City of New York in the State of New York, North America. Springland, Pennsylvanian: William Birch [and] William H. Morgan, “1st January 1803” [ca. 1820]. Estimate $12,000–15,000.

As seen from the vantage of Brooklyn Heights, this view depicts all the major buildings of the New York City in 1802, beginning with the south end of the Battery on the left. Visible is the steeple of Trinity Church (at the west end of Wall Street), St Paul’s, St George’s and the Dutch Reformed Church.

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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Ferdinand V. Hayden, The Yellowstone National Park, and the Mountain Ranges of Portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. Boston: L. Prang and Company, 1876. Estimate $250,000–350,000.

First edition of Moran and Hayden’s Yellowstone Park, called “the greatest American landscape book of the post-Civil War era,” and “the pinnacle of chromolithography as both a high-quality form of art reproduction and a commercially viable medium,” in Peter C Marzio’s The Democratic Art.

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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[Currier & Ives] – Charles Parsons and Lyman Atwater, The City of New York. New York: Currier & Ives, 1876. Estimate $8,000–10,000.

A fine bird’s-eye panorama of the city of New York from the south, including a large view of the Great East River Suspension Bridge – known later as the Brooklyn Bridge – in anticipation of its completion some seven years in the future.

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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Thomas Moran and William Henry Holmes [illustrators] – Clarence E. Dutton. Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District. [with:] Atlas to accompany the monograph on the tertiary history of the Grand Cañon district. Washington and New York. [Text:] Government Printing Office, [Atlas:] Julius Bien & Co. of New York, 1882. Estimate $8,000–10,000.

A fine set of “one of the grandest publications of the scientific expeditions in the American West… [depicting] the Grand Canyon in a series of magnificent panoramas” (Reese & Miles, Depicting America). The work includes illustrations by William Holmes and Thomas Moran, arguably the two greatest American topographical artists to record this era of westward expansion.

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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[Mount Vernon]. Düring, C.A. Berg Vernon in Virginien [Mount Vernon in Virginia], 1827. Estimate $10,000–15,000.

An image from the national subconscious: the home of the “father of our nation.”

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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William Perris, Map of the City of New York. New York: Published by the Surveyor William Perris 93 William Street [copyright registered in 1850 by Perris & Hutchinson], 1850-51. Estimate $20,000–30,000.

A very rare mid-19th century large-scale map of New York published for the city’s fire stations. The map extends noroth from the tip of Manhattan to 42nd Street. The key of 24 different symbols identifies churches, schools, hotels, places of amusement, public buildings, newspaper offices, parks, cemeteries and more. However, the most important element of this map is its association with firefighting in New York. The locations of each of the city’s engine, hose and hook-and-ladder houses are shown, and bold red lines indicate the eight numbered fire districts.

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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[Philadelphia]. Düring, C. A. Philadelphia von dem grossen Baum zu Kingston. [Philadelphia from the Great Tree of Kingston (i.e. Kensington)], 1827. Estimate $6,000–8,000.

Philadelphia in the 1820s, depicting the city from just beyond the great elm tree at Kensington on the Delaware, in a German-style landscape typical of the period.

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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[South Carolina]. Charleston Harbour and the Adjacent Coast and Country, South Carolina. Surveyed at Intervals in 1823, 1824, and 1825... Washington: 1825. Estimate $30,000–50,000.

A superbly coloured, massive and impressively detailed map of Charleston and the surrounding South Carolina coast. This exceedingly rare map of Charleston Harbor, engraved by William J Stone, was produced by engraver William Stone two years after his famed Declaration of Independence facsimile.

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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[Wyoming]. Original Pen and Ink Drawing of Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming Territory, 1869. Estimate $6,000–8,000.

A beautifully executed ink-and-wash drawing of Fort D A Russell, Wyoming Territory, near present-day Cheyenne. Fort Russell was established in 1867 to protect workers building the Union Pacific Railroad, and was named in honor of David Allen Russell, a Civil War general killed at the Battle of Opequon. The post remained a key fort throughout the various conflicts with the Sioux, Cheyenne and other tribes of the region in the decade after its establishment. The artist is unnamed, but was likely a soldier recording his post in great detail.

Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana, Including Cartography
17 January | New York

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