Beschreibung:

Title: Big Bar - Middle Fork. Drawn and Published by Edwin Glover. Author: Glover, Edwin Place: San Francisco Publisher: Justh, Quirot & Co. Date: circa 1851 Description: 9½x13 lithograph across 12x18 double sheet of large, untrimmed and unfolded white wove paper. With original full-size pencil drawing signed by Glover on reverse. Rare Gold Rush-era lithographed letter sheet depicting a "Deep river valley with towering, sparsely wooded hills; a small settlement; various mining operations in the river and on its banks." (Joseph Baird "California's Pictorial Letter Sheets, 1849-1869). The original pencil drawing on the reverse shows a similar scene or perhaps a different perspective of the same site. With a background again of sparsely wooded hills in the foreground are Chinese laborers with carrying poles; a wooden toll bridge and toll house; a four-horse carriage; buildings; tents; etc., all in a highly finished pencil drawing spanning almost the entire sheet. This drawing is perhaps the original art for an unpublished or at least unrecorded pictorial letter sheet. Of the artist, Edwin Glover, little is known. See Hughes "Artists in California" (both editions) and Peters "California on Stone" for conflicting references. Baird 11; Peters p. 133. Lot Amendments Condition: Overall tanning to paper; 2 old dampstains to bottom margin; severall pin-holes in image; 2x3 mm. hole in upper left quarter of litho image; 2x10 mm. hole in upper margin, still remarkably well-preserved and near very good. Item number: 171123