Portrait Gallery Distinguished American Citizens (9 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Brown, William H. (illustrator). 1st ed. 27 facsimiles of Letters, 27 portraits, 26 of which are full length silhouettes, and 111 pages of text consisting almost entirely of Biographical Sketches. Original cloth backed in leather. Front and back covers heavily reinforced on along edges with later cloth/tape. Gilt title and seated figure on front cover. Contents reasonably sound with considerable foxing. Hinges reinforced with later tape. Former owner's name in pencil (Lucien Charles Lance, Waccamaw, South Carolina).

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. One of 600 copies, facsimile reprint of the 1845 edition. [2] + 111 p. + 54 plates (27 full-page tinted plates and 27 full-page facsimiles of original manuscript letters by the subjects). Hardcover, bound in blue buckram. Some scuffing to the binding, marginal toning to the text block.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Illustrated by William Henry Brown (illustrator). Facsimile. Facsimile copy of the original 1845 edition. Limited: 600 copies. This edition unnumbered and does not contain the additional 200 prints noted in the Limited statement. Blue cloth light rubbing to front boards. Binding tight, inner pages clean and unmarked. Tissue-guard overlays for each full-page silhouette. Accompanying biographical details for each portrait, with copy of originalhandwritten letter for each subject on left-hand side, with full-page portrait on right-hand side. Portraits include: John Quincy Adams, Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Calhoun, De Witt Clinton, William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren.; Folio 13" - 23" tall; 111 pages.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. G.A. Baker and Co.; New York, 1931. This book is Hardcover. Re-Issue Edition. Book limited to 600 numbered copies. This book is not numbered. Very Good, navy blue binding with gilt lettering on front board and spine, gilt illustration front board and gilt ornate design on spine, scuff mark top front board, spine fade, some handling/rub marks to boards, some rubbing to spine edges and board corners, binding sturdy and intact, TEG with some blemishes, deckle fore-edge/bottom text block edge, some sunning to pages, very few handling/smudge marks to some pages, paperclip residue front free endpaper, without Dust wrapper. Overall a nice, clean and unmarked copy. 4to[quarto or approx. 9.5 x 12 inches], 111pp., tissue protected b&w illustrations. We pack securely and ship daily with delivery confirmation on every book. The picture on the listing page is of the actual book for sale. Additional Scan(s) are available for any item, please inquire.Please note: Oversized books/sets MAY require additional postage then what is quoted for 2.2lb book.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Limited Edition Reprint. 111 pages, bound in blue buckram cloth, gilt stamping on the spine and front cover, with cloth internal hinges, light wear to the cover, internally fine, limited to 600 numbered copies, this is an unnumbered copy -- originally published in 1845 -- all plates and tissue guards are present -- see Howes 871 -- photographs of this are available on our website.

First edition of this remarkable collection of silhouette portraits of prominent politicians and leaders, created by scissors artist William H. Brown. As William H. Brown notes in his introduction, Revolutionary figures have always carried an outsized influence on America's history and portraiture. In PORTRAIT GALLERY OF DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN CITIZENS, Brown strove to add 19th-century icons to the pantheon of US history, expanding it in the style of the then-mainstream the Great Man Theory of history. His selection of the silhouette as his art form of choice for this work is striking: as photography became more popular in the mid-19th century, silhouettes were quickly falling out of favor. But Brown was known for pushing the boundaries of the form, leading silhouettes to enjoy "a period of popularity, when [they] were considered the quintessential contemporary snapshots of public and private life" (K. S., 103). An example of Brown's artistry - and what gives these images an unexpectedly modern feel - is the setting of his portraits: his dark, flat silhouettes have been placed within realistic backgrounds depicted using traditional techniques of perspective. It is as though these men have been distilled to their essential form, with sparse details added in faint white pencil, yet still exist within the real world. A stunning ante-bellum project of mythologizing American history. 16.25'' x 12''. Publisher's quarter goatskin cloth boards with gilt pictorial stamping; skillfully rebacked, with original spine laid down. Top edge gilt. Illustrated with three-color lithograph frontispiece and 25 black and yellow lithograph plates with paper guards, with 26 lithograph letter facsimiles. 110 pages, lacking final leaf of text. Binding with light wear and spots of toning. Tail of textblock with a bit of soil. Leaves with scattered foxing and occasional soiling to margins. Sound. Very good; lacking final page of text, but with all illustrations present.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. "exlibrary, notation on copyright page, "Brown" underlined in pencil on title page, discard stamp on rear pastedown, name stamped top and bottom edges (faded); upper and fore edges soiled; rebound in black library hardcover, gilt lettering faded; covers scuffed/soiled; edges rubbed, corners rubbed through to inner boards; spine ends a bit frayed; internally very good; plates have no library marking, light foxing and offsetting; most of the portraits retain the full richness of the black tone. More than complete, there is a complete duplicate entry for William White.".

Folio. (15 7/8 x 12 inches). 27 tinted lithographed silhouette portraits, 27 tinted lithographed plates of facsimiles of handwriting. Publisher's half brown morocco, cloth boards with gilt device First edition of this impressive work, notable for its effective and evocative lithographed portraits of renowned Americans of the antebellum period, each depicted in full-length silhouette profile: "Almost the entire edition was destroyed by fire, and copies are extremely rare" (Harry Peters). All the portraits, except for the George Washington allegorical frontispiece, are based on sketches made from life by Brown, who was widely celebrated for his scissor-cut silhouettes. Brown was born and died in Charleston, South Carolina, but in the interim traveled widely throughout the United States, his fame as a silhouettist gaining him access to many of the country's leading citizens whose profiles Brown took which amazing speed and accuracy. Alice Van Leer Carrick, an authority on silhouettes, notes that, rather than any existing original portraits, the present work is "the real memorial to Brown's genius, [and it is] now almost rarer than any of the silhouettes themselves." Brown prepared the biographical text himself, and the silhouettes (with appropriate tinted backgrounds) were transferred to stone and printed by one of the best known lithographic firms of the period: Kelloggs of Hartford, CT. The result is a valuable historical and visual record, with subjects including John Marshall, John Q. Adams, Richard C. Moore, Andrew Jackson, John Forsyth, William Henry Harrison, John C. Calhoun, De Witt Clinton, Richard M. Johnson, Joel Poinsett, Alexander Macomb, Martin Van Buren, Samuel Southard, Henry Clay, Henry Wise, Thomas Hart Benton, John Tyler, Levi Woodbury, Thomas Cooper, Daniel Webster, William White, Silas Wright, Nathaniel Tallmadge, Felix Grundy, Dixon Lewis, and John Randolph. Each portrait is accompanied by another plate displaying a facsimile of the subject's handwriting. According to Peters, "almost the entire edition was destroyed by fire, and copies are extremely rare." Furthermore, the book is often found incomplete with plates lacking; the present example complete with all portraits and plates of handwriting. Cf. Groce-Wallace, Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860, p. 90; Howes B871 ("b"); cf. Peters, America on Stone, pp., 116-117; Sabin 8578.

111pp., printed in double columns, plus twenty-seven plates and twenty-seven facsimiles, including frontis. Folio. Publishers' half black morocco with brown cloth boards, gilt pictorial front board, blindstamped pictorial rear board, spine gilt, t.e.g., skillfully rebacked retaining original backstrip, corners renewed with black buckram. Boards shelfworn, occasional foxing throughout, a few tears to tissue guards. Very good overall. First edition of this dramatic work of visual biography. This impressively large scale work is notable for its lithographs of renowned Americans of the 1820s, '30s and '40s, showing the subjects standing in full- length silhouette profile, against a tinted background, resulting in effective and evocative portraits. All the portraits (save for the George Washington frontispiece) are based on sketches made from life by William Henry Brown (1808-82), who was widely celebrated for his scissor portraits. Brown prepared the biographical text himself, and the silhouettes (with appropriate tinted backgrounds) were transferred to stone and printed by one of the best known lithographic firms of the period: the Kelloggs of Hartford, Connecticut. Included (after the necessary eulogistic frontispiece dedicated to Washington) are John Marshall, John Quincy Adams, Richard C. Moore, Andrew Jackson, John Forsyth, William Henry Harrison, John C. Calhoun, De Witt Clinton, Richard M. Johnson, Joel R. Poinsett, Alexander Macomb, Martin Van Buren, Samuel L. Southard, Henry Clay, Henry A. Wise, Thomas Hart Benton, John Tyler, Levi Woodbury, Thomas Cooper, Daniel Webster, William White, Silas Wright, Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, Felix Grundy, Dixon H. Lewis, and John Randolph. Each portrait is accompanied by another plate displaying a facsimile of the subject's handwriting, usually in a piece of correspondence. According to Alice Van Leer Carrick, "Henry Clay wrote to Brown concerning the profile of his old political enemy, John Randolph of Roanoke, 'It is the very perfection of your art'," and that "Daniel Webster said of his silhouette, 'I cannot, however, see its resemblance to the original as I do in all the others.[although] My friends unite in saying that the one you took of myself is a striking likeness'" (quoted in Peters, p.116). HOWES B871, "b." SABIN 8578. PETERS, AMERICA ON STONE, pp.116-17.