Details
A Certified facsimile or actual-size print. We offer a true quality nobody has; and for a price nobody is offering you for a comparable quality. This print was photographed using the latest technology, with a color-checker colour matched to the original illustration and then reproduced at the original plate size. A Museum Quality Limited Edition print, actual-size, signed, numbered and blind stamped. Indistinguishable form the original when glazed and framed.
Title of the print: Mássika, Saki Indian. Wakusáee, Musquake Indian.
Prints publication: Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834
Author: Maximilian Prince of Wied
Prints Artist: Karl Bodmer (1809-1893)
Prints Engraver: Hurlimann
Paper size: 58.0 x 44.5 cm; 22.8 x 17.5 inch
Edition: The edition will be limited to 150 prints, numbered 1/150 to 150/150, signed and stamped with a blind embossing
Certificate of Authenticity: On demand
Plate size: Exactly as the original plate.
Source of the original : This Heritage Facsimile Edition print is made from an extremely well-preserved early museum original subscription which has been cared for in the hands of this one owner only – Teylers Museum (the oldest museum of the Netherlands).
Museum Quality: The proofs of our prints are carefully compared and corrected with the originals and the final prints always have the original size. As a result, the naked eye is unable to distinguish the originals from the facsimile prints when framed and glazed.
Durability: To ensure the durability, our facsimiles are printed on acid-free white-edged paper with archive inks. Each facsimile has it all: every incredibly fine line detail of every lithographic plate or engraving; every delicate brushstroke of every original.
About the Original:
Travels in the Interior of North America Prince Maximilian zu Wied commissioned Swiss Artist Karl Bodmer to accompany him on a scientific expedition to North America to illustrate his field journals specifically to document the native tribes, geography, and various animal and plant species. From 1832-1834, von Wied’s/Bodmer's group travelled along the Missouri River, recording their findings.
Printmaking in Paris: Etchings from Travels in the Interior of North America
After the expedition returned to Germany, Bodmer went to Paris to begin translating his original drawings and watercolours into prints -- a huge undertaking given the massive amount of material he created in the field. Bodmer consulted with Maximilian concerning what images to include and hired artisans to help scribe his originals onto engraving plates. Aquatint, one of the most time-consuming and costly forms of printmaking was chosen as the medium to reproduce Bodmer's originals, and publishers ultimately offered five distinct, luxurious versions of the publication to subscribers, including black-and-white as well as hand-colored on a variety of specialized papers.
At one point, nearly 30 engravers were etching plates for this project. The final prints combined elements of Bodmer's field studies with his recollections of scenes the party had witnessed on its journey, all directed by Maximilian and his vision for what portions of the narrative should be illustrated.
One of These Things Is Not Like the Other: First and Second State Prints
Most of the copies of Travels in the Interior of North America were ordered with black and white prints; a few were published with coloured engravings. The more expensive and more time-consuming coloured editions were printed with some colour on each plate and then finished by hand. Since different artisans were hired to finish colouring different engravings, there are often marked differences between copies of the same image.
When examining prints of an historical nature, it is extremely difficult to tell when colour was applied and by whom. Colour was many times applied at a much later date by any artist at the request of a dealer. Looking closely at these prints, the handling of colour is much different from the first prints. Our prints are the original black and white prints exactly as the originals.
