Description:

Edward S. Curtis
(1868 - 1952)
The North American Indian Portfolio XX, 1930
35 photogravures on Japanese Gampi tissue with original Van Gelder overmats
signed in the plate below image: E. S. Curtis

Featuring the Nunivak, King Island, Little Diomede Island, Cape Prince of Wales and Kotzebue tribes of Alaska

LIMITED EDITION: This Portfolio is from set #96, printed on handmade Japanese gampi tissue paper, quarto, original ¾ brown crushed levant by H. Blackwell of Boston, over beige linen-covered boards, original gilt lettered, with photogravure plates by Suffolk Engraving Company of Boston after photographs by Edward S. Curtis, edited by Frederick Webb Hodge, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, field research conducted under the patronage of J. Pierpont Morgan.

PORTFOLIO: 35 large format photogravures, including a List of Plates reference that is hand letterpress printed on hand-made paper. Loose bound in a hand-made, 3-flap portfolio.

Curtis' fieldwork for The North American Indian came to a close during the summer of 1927, when he spent the season with the Eskimos of subarctic and arctic Alaska. Curtis noted that the distinguishing characteristic of these peoples was their adaptability, for they would not have survived in, much less settled in, an area of such severe climate if they were not. Their sophisticated ability to cure and work skins into parkas, boots, and mittens was unparalleled anywhere in North America. The Eskimos were also brilliant makers of equipment, since hunting was an unforgiving pursuit in arctic and subarctic conditions; their kayaks, fishing hooks, spears, and traps were all ingeniously contrived and the hunting weaponry exceptionally deadly. From "Woman and Child - Nunivak", "Ready for Sealing - Nunivak" and "Launching the Boat - Little Diomede Island", it is these aspects which are highlighted in the images of this portfolio. In many ways, Curtis's return to Alaska provided a fitting end to The North American Indian. It brought a sense of closure to the project, but it also must have helped him put his thirty-year odyssey into perspective. As he stated in the introduction to volume twenty, "…great is the satisfaction the writer enjoys when he can at last say to all those whose faith has been unbounded, "It is finished"".

    Provenance:
  • Edward S. Curtis Studio
    William Henry Moore
    The Moore Memorial Library
    The Christopher G. Cardozo Collection, 2001
  • Dimensions:
  • Folio: 23 x 19 in. (58.42 x 48.26 cm.), Prints: 18 x 22 in. (45.72 x 55.88 cm.)
  • Artist Name:
  • Edward S. Curtis
  • Exhibited:

  • Woman and Child - Nunivak, Plate 694
    Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian (176 print exhibit), 2000
    Edward S. Curtis: 100 Masterworks, 2016
  • Medium:
  • 35 photogravures on Japanese Gampi tissue with original Van Gelder overmats
  • Condition:
  • The condition reports for the lots offered by Santa Fe Art Auction (SFAA) are provided as a courtesy and convenience for potential buyers. The reports are not intended to nor do they substitute for physical examination by a buyer or the buyer's advisors. The condition reports are prepared by SFAA staff members who are not art conservators or restorers, nor do they possess the qualifications needed for comprehensive evaluation. Each condition report is an opinion of the staff member and should not be treated as a statement of fact. The absence of a condition report does not imply anything as to the condition of a particular lot. Buyers are reminded that the limited warranties are set forth in the Terms and Conditions of Sale and do not extend to condition. Each lot is sold as-is.

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