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Sunday, October 8, 2023

Currier & Ives Prints for The Dollhouse

"The Pioneer's Home. On The Western Frontier." Currier & Ives print for dollhouses. The
lithograph depicts fur trappers, a log cabin, a covered wagon, pet hunting dog, a forest 
glen, children with their mother, a log bridge, hay stacks fall color and barnyard animals.

        Currier and Ives lithographs depicted a variety of images of American life, including winter scenes; horse-racing images; portraits of people; and pictures of ships, sporting events, patriotic and historical events, including ferocious battles of the American Civil War, the building of cities and railroads, and Lincoln's assassination.

"Winter In The Country, The Old Grist Mill" print by Currier & Ives depicts: log buildings,
winter forest, frozen stream, snow, horse and sleigh, cloudy skies.

       The original lithographs shared similar characteristics in inking and paper, and adhered to folio sizes. Sizes of the images were standard (trade cards, very small folios, small folios, medium folios, large folios), and their measurement did not include the title or borders. These sizes are one of the guides for collectors today in determining if the print is an original or not. "Currier used a cotton based, medium to heavy weight paper depending on the folio size for his prints until the late 1860’s. 
 
"God Bless Our School." by Currier & Ives, print shows: globe, sculpture, painting with easel,
map, old text books, slates drafting tools etc...

       From about 1870, Currier & Ives used paper mixed with a small amount of wood pulp." In addition, Currier’s inking process resembled a mixture of elongated splotches and dashes of ink with a few spots, a characteristic that modern reproductions would not possess." In 1907 when the firm was liquidated most of the lithographic stones had the image removed and were sold by the pound with some stones final home as land fill in Central Park. Those few stones that managed to survive intact were of large folio Clipper Ships, small folio Dark Town Comics, a medium folio "Abraham Lincoln" and a small folio "Washington As A Mason".

Links To Currier & Ives Sites:

"High Water" In The Mississippi by Currier & Ives shows: people taking refuge on their roofs
during a flood, a steamboat, trees in the flood and crates and barrels floating.

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