Customer Reviews

Currier & Ives: Printmakers to the American People, Special Edition

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I have been a collector of Currier and Ives prints for over three decades now, and I still consider this to be the best single volume reference on the subject. In fact, this was the volume that introduced me to the forgotten world of popular 19th century lithographed prints when I experienced a strange sense of deja vu while flipping through it. That is what is revealed here- a forgotten world of America as she saw herself between the years of 1835 and 1907. These prints were sold for as little as six cents apiece when they were first published. They enabled the average man to bring artwork into his home and life at a price that he could afford. Indeed, these prints were the ubiquitous backdrop to the 19th century, since they could be found adorning the walls of barrooms, barbershops, firehouses, and hotels, as well as the homes of rich and poor alike.

The book starts with a good concise history of the firm and it's founders, as well as, a brief description of the lithography process itself. Next, brief biographies are included of the principle artists (when the book was first published the author had actually known some of them in their later years.) Then there is a section of brief descriptions of the prints on the included plates indexed by number. There are 192 plates; each containing between one and four reduced sized reproductions of the original prints. Approximately one in five plates are reproduced in the rich, full color of the originals.

The subject matter included in this selection is very representative of the firm's output and includes: landscape views, political cartoons and banners, portraits, historical prints, moral and religious prints, prints for children, country and pioneer home scenes, humor, sheet music, Mississippi river prints, railroad prints, horse prints, sporting events, and ship prints. Yet even this is only a small sampling of Currier and Ive's output since they claimed to have produced on average three new prints a week for over fifty years. Unfortunately the company itself did not maintain the most complete record of its own production- unknown prints still turn up to this day.

The first 41 pages of this book are a short history of the company known as Currier & Ives. Nathaniel Currier was an artist partnered with his brother Charles and in 1852 they hired an art enthusiast named James Merritt Ives. For decades after that their company specialized in reproducing cheap artwork and their prints are still widely reproduced. When I was young, the dishes that the local grocery store passed out free with a purchase were advertised as having Currier & Ives images on them. The remainder of the book is an indexed collection of their prints. Together, they are a lesson in the history of the United States.
The prints cover a wide swath of activities from that period. There is the branding of slaves, soldiers leaving for and returning from the Civil War, locomotives and steamboats in action, and the occasional political cartoon. In looking over the prints, you see an idealized vision of the country, in general people are engaged in prim and proper behavior and there is little that hints of the seedier side of life. The United States of that time was a rough, rugged and often dirty place. Nevertheless, this book is interesting to leaf through as the artwork really defines the way prints should look.

This was a book I enjoyed looking at on a table at church, and out of curiosity thought to check on-line to see if I could get it. I was delighted to find it and even more pleased at the superb condition; my copy even has a more decorative cover, which I like very much.