Barlow, Thomas Oldham (1824-1889), engraver; after a drawing by Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1822-1888); made from photographs by Mathew B. Brady (1823-1896); in conjunction with an oil painting by Christian Schussele (1824-1879)

Washington Irving and His Literary Friends at Sunnyside, First Edition of the Engraving

New York: Irving Publishing Company, 1864. Steel line and stipple engraving. 24 x 33.5 inches. Marginal tears and abrasions. partially mounted on linen..left to right: Henry T. Tuckerman (1813-1871), Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790-1867), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867), William H. Prescott (1796-1859), Washington Irving (1783-1859), James Kirke Paulding (1778-1860), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870), James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), and George Bancroft (1800-1891)...This imaginary scene shows fifteen celebrated literary figures gathered at the home of Washington Irving, author of such popular tales as “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820). Advertisements published in the New York Times in December 1863 announced the painting’s exhibition at a Manhattan art gallery, where visitors could purchase a fifty-four-page booklet describing the work. “It is, in the truest and completest sense, a National picture,” the anonymous author declared, and its production “will be universally regarded as a National event.” The painting resulted from a collaborative effort. The photographer Mathew Brady captured the likeness of each writer (including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Irving himself), and the artist F. O. C. Darley designed the group composition. Working from those materials, Christian Schussele painted this canvas while Thomas Oldham Barlow engraved a widely reproduced print..From the collection of Frederic Gale Ruffner, Jr. the founder of Gale Research, Detroit. .

Wittenborn Art BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 16-5290

Catalogue: Art

Darley, Carr Octavius Felix

Compositions in Outline from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter

Camabridge, MA, Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1879. Hardcover. giant 22x17 buckram boards w/ gilt spine printing. approx 26 pgs w/ 12 bw plates. Board edges, corners and spine ends are heavily rubbed; corners rubbed to boards. Boards surface's scuffed and scratched. Pages have a variety of smudges and light marks; smudges particuarly concentrated to lower edges of pages. Title page has a tear. Plate 1 has a small red stain to upper edge; the intro page is chipped to lower edge. Plate 12 intro page as tear. Each story plate has an introduction page with a selection from the Scarlet Letter. Publisher's note states that each illustration is "reproduced by Heliotype process, from Mr. Darley's original drawings." Edition is dedicated to Darley's friend, Henry W. Longfellow. F.O.C. Darley was renowned for his 19th Century illustrations of famous authors. Good. ex-library; rebound w/ gilt ID to spine; plate to cover pastedown; IDs to title pg; barcode to back pg; each plate has a ~2.5inch perforated library stamp to plate edge. medium sized dampstain to lower spine & pg edges, extending to the lower edges of some plates, also affects boards w/ slight rippling to pgs.

Kevin Mullen, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 181661

Catalogue: American Artists

Keywords: F.O. C. Darley, Felix Octavius Carr Darley, 19th Century Illustrators, Scarlet Letter ; F.O. C. Darley, Felix Octavius Carr Darley, 19th Century Illustrators, Scarlet Letter ; ;

Darley, Felix Octavius Carr (artist -1822-1888) and James Fenimore Cooper (author - 1789-1851)

Darley's [James Fenimore] Cooper Vignettes. Artists Proofs. Folios 1-4 [32 Engravings]

New York: W.A. Townsend and Company,1862. Folio. 11 x 15 inches. Parts 1-4 only (of 8). Each containing 8 steel-engraved plates in India paper, mounted on French plate paper, each with accompanying letterpress. (Folio) 38 x2 7.5 cm (15 x 11") loose in original pictorial board portfolios, as issued. The prints are artists proofs before letters. The publisher's prospectus, printed inside the front boards explains: “It was known that the extensive bank-note system of our country had developed a style of engraving superior in brilliancy and effect to almost anything which the European burins afford, but which, from its peculiarly laborious and costly method, has been confined nearly exclusively to bank-note dies. In order, therefore, to secure these Vignettes a style of execution which should commend them to all patrons of art, it was determined to have them engraved, so far as practicable, by the leading artists of this much admired school. It was the first attempt, it is believed, to introduce the deep cutting and solid lining of a bank-note die into book work, and was only accomplished at a cost fully double that usually paid for book illustrations of a similar character . No work of the same magnitude and kind has hitherto been accomplished in this country..”. The edition was limited to 500 impressions. Scarce. Library of Congress Control Number 17002065. .

Wittenborn Art BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 16-2831

Catalogue: Art