Sold by House of Mirth Photos, Easthampton, MA, U.S.A.
Association Member:
AbeBooks Seller since January 3, 2020
Seller rating 2 out of 5 stars
Two items - an album and promotional catalogue - market the services provided by Sprague-Hathaway, Inc. of West Somerville, Massachusetts. In their own words, Sprague-Hathaway Inc. was organized to specialize in advanced portraiture [in 1874]. Their services included photo enlargement, restoration, reproduction, airbrush coloring, and framing. A 5.125 x 7.75 twenty-eight-page catalogue (circa 1925) details the portrait painting options provided by Sprague-Hathaway. This catalogue reassures potential customers of the artistic merit and originality offered through their service. The artistic processes, of which one page is dedicated to each, were given names original to this company. Few indicate a special treatment, such as the Van Deck (after the Flemish painter of the same name) and the Bostonia. Distinctions of the portraiture development processes include the use of oil, water colors, or carbon-based prints; different styled backgrounds; sepia, black-and-white, or colored airbrushed finish; chalk sketches of portraits; canvas type, and more. The top right corner of the cover is torn off. The exposed portion of the title page show marks and the first two pages have rough edges. The nineteen-page 9.75 x 10.5 album from Sprague-Hathaway, Inc. c. 1950, contains a general overview of this company specialized process of photo restoration and reproduction. Typeset appears on the lefthand side of the album while the sample photos appear on the right. The album is in very good condition, despite light discoloration at the edges of the pages and photographs, and a missing portion of the spine. In the first half of the album, white pages with green letterpress narrate the photo restoration process alongside demonstrative images. The first image is a copy of a damaged original, as seen with tears, scratches, and spotting. Over the next several pages, the process to restore the image is displayed from the creation of an enlarged copy to the airbrushed finish. The second section of the album details five styles of reproduction offered by Sprague-Hathaway. The first being the most popular, "Prestige," available in black and white or sepia. Followed by: their namesake "Sprague," then "Peerless," a rubbed-down transparent oil-based brushwork, then "Vogue," a heavy-handed oil painting process, and "Hathaway," another heavy oil process on tapestry paper and mounted on Masonite. The final page of the album provides the company brief story of origin from the year 1874 and continues to pronounce its deserved merit at the time of the albums production (likely during the 1950s). The company was dissolved in 1958.
Seller Inventory # 1293
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