CURTIS EDWARD S The North American Indian Being a Series of

Sale 2080 - Lot 347

Price Realized: $ 218,500

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 150,000 - $ 250,000

WITH A TREASURE TROVE OF CURTIS EPHEMERA CURTIS, EDWARD S. The North American Indian, Being a Series of Volumes Picturing and Describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska. Volumes 1-20. Together, 20 volumes. Each lavishly illustrated with sepia photogravures on Van Gelder (18) and Vellum (2) papers. Large 4to, 3/4 gilt-lettered morocco, with book plates on paste downs of volumes 19 and 20, and an embossed library hand stamp on the margins of each of the plates in vol. 20. Seattle, Wash.: New York; and Cambridge, Mass.: The University Press, 1907-30

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Additional Details

Volumes 1-18 are edition 225/300 on Holland Van Gelder Paper. And, volume 19 is 342/500, and Volume 20 is 115/500. The last two volumes are each on Vellum Paper.

Curtis's "The North American Indian" is a classic of Photographic Literature. Its lavish productions values, sumptuous morocco binding, and the 1500 sepia photogravure plates, are the gold standard of photobooks.

In 1907, Curtis envisioned an ambitious project to document "the vanishing race" across the United States, a survey he thought would take 15 years to complete. He approached the financier J.P. Morgan for sponsorship and Morgan agreed to advance the photographer $15,000 a year for 5 years provided the books were "the handsomest ever published." By 1930, when Curtis's final volume of his magnum opus was published, he was penniless and forgotten.

with--A custom-made archival box containing ephemera relating to "The North American Indian" including: a small-format proof print of "Santa Ana Man"; a small-format gravure of "Navajo Boy"; a sepia-toned signed silver print of "Mori Children, tipped-in to the original presentation folder; a blue-toned gravure of "Gathering Mussels"; a vintage Prospectus from 1906; 3 gravure postcards; an original subscription agreement; a Lauriat Company mailing envelope; a Lauriat prospectus; an original Patrons' Form of subscription; a printed 8vo-size "Foreword" by Theodore Roosevelt; an original Program for "The Curtis Picture Musicale"; a vintage poster about the musicale (in 2 pieces); the Royal Netherlands Geological Society Review; "Picture Opera" review; Hawthorne Review; Guildhall Library, London review; and Extracts of reviews. Folio-size gilt-lettered morocco-backed cloth box; contents laid in. 1907-1935.