Apr 18, 2019 - Sale 2506

Sale 2506 - Lot 6

Price Realized: $ 4,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
EDWARD S. CURTIS (1868-1952)
The North American Indian, Being a Series of Volumes Picturing and Describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska. Volume II.
Written, Illustrated and Published by Edward S. Curtis. Edited by Frederick Webb Hodge. Foreword by Theodore Roosevelt. Field Research conducted under the patronage of J. Pierpont Morgan. Lavishly illustrated with 75 (of 75) sepia-toned photogravure plates on Japan vellum of Curtis' landmark photographs of Native Americans, this volume documenting multiple tribes, including the Pima Papago, Qahatika Mohave, Yuma Maricopa, Walapai Havasupai, and Apache-Mohave, each with a printed caption and Curtis' copyright in the margin. Large 4tos, 3/4 gilt-lettered leather, edgewear and stains; with the original interleaving tissue; top edge gilt. Roth 36; Parr/Badger I 73; Hasselbad 48; Auer 94. ONE OF A PLANNED EDITION OF 500 COPIES, OF WHICH LESS THAN HALF WERE FULFILLED. THIS COPY IS UNNUMBERED.
(Norwood, Massachusetts): (The Plimpton Press), 1908

Additional Details

From Edward Curtis; to Frank Donohue, who was in Curtis' employ; by descent.

Donohue, who assisted Curtis from 1906-14, sold subscriptions to The North American Indian. Volume II was used for sales purposes and does not have a set number.

In a letter dated March 1906 he proudly states, ". . . I handled a newspaper deal for him [Curtis] in connection with the the Roosevelt-Longworth wedding. He is Curtis, the Indian photographer and J. P. Morgan has advanced him $75,000."

In a book written by Florence Curtis-Graybill, Curtis's daughter, a letter from her father to Hodge, his editor, mentions Mr. Donohue as a "subscription worker."