Beschreibung:

Title: Etchings of the Franciscan Missions of California, with the Outlined of History, Description, etc. Author: Ford, Henry Chapman Place: New York Publisher: [The Studio Press] Date: 1883 Description: 28 pages of text, stitched, cloth backing. 24 etched plates on Japan paper. The images measure approximately 17.5x33 cm (6¾x12¾") on sheets approximately 32.5x45 cm (12¾x17¾"). Plates tipped to later stiff matting, tissue guards. Housed together in a custom folding cloth case, leather label lettered in gilt on front. No. 35 of 50 copies. Text volume signed by Ford on the title page verso; 10 of the plates are signed in pencil by Ford, all are signed in the etching. Also included is the original pencil sketch by Ford for plate number 9 in the series "Santa Ynez" mission as well as a second etching by Ford of the Santa Barbara Mission, Looking South (1888), not from this series. Image approximately 24.5 by 19.5 cm (9¾x7¾"), sheet measures 32x25.5 cm (12½x10"). Henry Chapman Ford (1828–1894) was born in Livonia, New York. He studied art in Paris and Florence late in the 1850s. During the Civil War, he was a soldier assigned to prepare illustrations of interest to the military. After the war, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, where, in 1871, his studio was destroyed in the "Great Fire". In 1875 he settled in Santa Barbara, California, where he would live the remainder of his life. Ford traveled by horse and buggy to each of the twenty-one Spanish missions in California, where he created the sketches and paintings used for the etchings of this historically important portfolio. His depictions of the missions were (in part) responsible for the revival of interest in the state's Spanish heritage, and indirectly for the restoration of the missions themselves. In 1883, Ford published his Etchings of the Franciscan Missions of California, and exhibited his works at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The hallmarks of Ford’s images are exquisite brushwork and tonal mastery in all mediums, which make his works highly prized. Ford died in 1894 in Santa Barbara. Complete sets of this portfolio are virtually unobtainable, the individual etchings being highly prized by collectors. Lot Amendments Condition: Text pages a bit browned, light wear at edges, pencil markings and notes on plate list; one plate (#4) has had the margins wrapped around a stiff backing and adhered to the reverse, probably framed at some time in the past, now returned to the portfolio; a few plates with foxing but overall near fine. Item number: 246924