Dec 13, 2011 - Sale 2265

Sale 2265 - Lot 10

Price Realized: $ 3,600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,500
WATKINS, CARLETON (1829-1916)
"At the Hacienda, New Almaden, Santa Clara County, Ca." Mammoth albumen print, 15 1/2x20 1/2 inches (39.4x52.1 cm.), with Watkins's (?) caption, in pencil, on mount recto. Circa 1865
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Additional Details

From the collection of the painter R. Swain Gifford; to the Old Dartmouth Historical Society Whaling Museum, who de-accessioned the photograph at Sotheby's N.Y. in 1979 ; to a private collector. Copies of this print are in the collection of the Getty Museum and the Woodstock Foundation, Woodstock, Vermont.

Gifford (1840-1905) lived in New Bedford and, in 1869, traveled West while working on illustrations for his contributions to the 'Picturesque America' volumes. Apparently, he acquired the Watkins photograph while on this trip.

Nestled in a canyon 11 miles south of San Jose between the Pueblo Hills and the spurs of the Santa Cruz Mountains sits the tiny village of New Almaden, the once world-famous quicksilver mining community and California's first mining operation.