Dec 07, 2023 - Sale 2655

Sale 2655 - Lot 133

Price Realized: $ 1,875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
(PICTORIAL MAPS -- ORIGINAL ARTWORK.) Rosalind Howe Sturges. Philadelphia. 1682 - A Retrospective View of Wm. Penn's "Great & Good Contrivance" Whose Architecture Reflects Three Centuries of Cultural Amity. Graphite and watercolor on artist's board, signed and twice-dated at lower left. 25 1/2x36 3/4 inches including margins; colors fresh and unfaded, no major flaws or damages. Np, 1966, 1970
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Stunning original watercolor drawing, the model composition for a cartographic pictorial poster published by Philadelphia-based Girard Bank in 1971.

The view of Philadelphia is meticulously drawn and captioned with outstanding detail, and, as the title suggests, amalgamates the charm of elements from centuries past with the modern landscape of the city.

A Native American canoe, a seventeenth-century galleon, and a modern tugboat appear together in the forefront Delaware River; an oxen-drawn carriage and Benjamin Franklin sparking his kite flank the Society Hill Towers; a hot airship and a hot dog vendor; a nineteenth-century fire brigade and the Roundhouse; and a Continental Color Guard neighboring an electric streetlamp in the plaza of Independence Hall are just a few of the delightful anachronistic minutiae tucked away in the dense illustration.