Description: A FOREST ON LAKE ONTARIO Artist: William Henry Bartlett ____________ Engraver: J.T. Willmore Note: the title in the table above is printed below the engraving CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE 19th CENTURY DECORATIVE LANDSCAPE & TOPOGRAPHICAL PRINTS LIKE THIS !! PRINT DATE: This lithograph was printed by George Virtue in London in 1838; it is not a modern reproduction in any way. PRINT SIZE: Overall print size is 10 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches including white borders, actual scene is 7 1/8 inches by 4 3/4 inches. PRINT CONDITION: Condition is excellent. Bright and clean. Blank on reverse. Paper is quality woven rag stock. SHIPPING: Buyer to pay shipping, domestic orders receives priority mail, international orders receive regular mail unless otherwise specified. Details on payment will be in an email after auction closes. THIS PRINT IS FROM THE LATE 1830s & IS NOT A MODERN REPRODUCTION IN ANY WAY! FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: The view over this immense forest was taken in the Tuscarora reservation, from an Indian cabin, which serves as a sort of halting-place for travellers to Niagara. We arrived here about noon, emerging from a tract of deep woods which had darkened the road for several miles, and glancing off to the right, discovered that we were. following a high ridge, from which extended, with a radius of forty miles, one unbroken sea of foliage. A thin silver line on the very rim of the horizon looked brighter than the sky, and we found on inquiry that it was Lake Ontario, which, with its thread of bright light, forms a limit to what, else, were an object as boundless as the sea. An Indian woman of about forty, dressed very neatly, came out to offer for sale specimens of Indian workmanship, such as moccosins, pouches, &c.; and, among other things, a beautiful little model of a bark canoe. De Kalm, who travelled in this country in 1749, gives avery detailed account of the making of a canoe. He was going to Canada under the escort of a party .of Indians, who, on coming to a portage of forty miles, between the Hudson and Lake Champlain, (now superseded by a canal,) were compelled to leave their canoe and build another. "The making of the canoe," he says, "took up half yesterday and all this day. To make such a boat, they pick out a thick, tall birch.with a smooth bark, and with as few branches as possible. This tree is cut down, and great care is taken to prevent the bark from being hurt byfalling against other trees, or against the ground. With this view some do not fell the trees, but climb to the top of them, split the bark, and strip it off; which was the method our boat-builder took. The bark is split on one side, in a straight line along the tree, as long as the boat is intended to be; at the same time the bark is carefully cut from the stem a little way on both sides of the slit, that it may more easily separate. The bark is then peeled off very carefully, and particular care is taken not to make any holes in it; this is easy when the sap is in the trees; and at other seasons the tree is heated by the fire for that purpose. "The hark thus stripped off is spread on the ground, in a smooth place, turning the inside downwards, and the rough outside upwards; and to stretch it better, some logs of wood or stones are carefully put on it, which press it down. Then the sides of the bark are gently bent upwards, in order to form the sides of the boat. Some sticks are then fixed into the ground at the distance of three or four feet from each other, in the curve line in which the sides of the boat are intended to be, supporting the bark intended for the sides. The sides of the bark are then bent in the form which the boat is to have, and according to that, the sticks are either put near or further off. "The ribs of the canoe are made of thick branches of hickory, they being tough and pliable. They are cut into several flat pieces, about an inch thick, and bent into the form which the ribs require, according to their places in the broader or narrower part of the boat. The upper edge on each side is made of two thin poles, of the length of the boat, which are put close together on the side, being flat where they are joined. The edge of the bark is put between these two poles, and sewed up with threads of the mouse-wood, or other tough bark, or with roots. "After this is done, the poles are sewed together, and being bent properly, both ends join at each end of the boat, where they are tied together with ropes. To prevent the widening of the boat at the top, three or four transverse bands are put across it, from one edge to the other, at the distance of thirty or forty inches from each other, made of hickory. "As the bark at the two ends of the boat cannot be put so close together as to keep out the water, the crevices are stopped up with the crushed or pounded bark of the red elm, which in that state looks like oakum. Some pieces of bark are put on the ribs of the boat, without which the foot would easily pierce the thin and weak bottom. The side of the bark which runs next the wood thus becomes the outside of the boat, because it is smooth and slippery, and cuts the water with less difficulty than the other. "The building of these boats is not always quick; for sometimes it happens that after peeling the bark off an elm, and carefully examining it, it is found pierced with holes and slits, or is too thin to venture one's life in. That which we made was big enough to bear four persons, with our baggage, which weighed somewhat more than a man. "All possible precautions must be taken in rowing on rivers with bark canoes; for when rowing fast, a broken branch under water would carry half the boat away. To get into it also requires great care, for the heels may very easily pierce through the bottom." BIOGRAPHY OF ARTIST AND HISTORY OF THIS PRINT: William Henry Bartlett, (born in London, 26 March 1809; died at sea off Malta, 13 Sept 1854) was an English draughtsman, active also in the Near East, Continental Europe and North America. He was a prolific artist and an intrepid traveler. His work became widely known through numerous engravings after his drawings published in his own and other writers' topographical books. His primary concern was to extract the picturesque aspects of a place and by means of established pictorial conventions to render 'lively impressions of actual sights', as he wrote in the preface to The Nile Boat (London, 1849). The background for his work on his views of American Scenery, of which the picture represented is one of his several hundred illustrations on the subject, is as follows: In early 1836, having just returned from completing a series of sketches of the Low Countries of the Netherlands area, Mr. Bartlett's success with prior illustration projects allowed him to remain at home for only a month. His name, as an artist, was exceedingly popular. Everything to which he lent the charm of his pencil was crowned with success; and thus encouraged, his publisher, George Virtue and Sons of London, resolved upon another extensive illustrative work, that of the new lands of America. The idea was suggested by Mr. Nathaniel Parker Willis, to whom Mr. Bartlett had struck up a promising friendship. In April 1836, Mr. Bartlett went to Paris, and then to Havre where he boarded a large steamship to New York. This would be one of three visits to North America by Bartlett, this first venture lasting the longest, from July or August of 1836 to July 1837. The second tour in 1838 lasted from early summer to December, and the last in 1841-1842 was more focused on drawings of Canada than the USA. All of his American Scenery plates bear the date of 1837, 1838 or 1839. Bartlett's illustrations were of most of the popular views and places of the time. Not willing or able to take the time to leave the more frequented routes, Bartlett usually sketched the picturesque or sublime views that were reasonably close and often identifiable because other travelers and artists had referred to them. Working as he did on commission from Virtue, having no "permanent share or copyright" on his works, being often absent from home for long periods, it was really little wonder that he kept to fairly well-known itineraries, which would give him the best chance to fill his portfolio with sketches for the machine of which he was so important a part. He was also able to get assistance from NP Willis in planning his route, as this well known American author and journalist had traveled extensively in the Eastern US and in 1827 and 1836 had visited Niagara Falls by way of the Erie Canal. Bartlett was quoted as saying that nothing struck him as much in America "so much as its comparative want of associations". Here he had to accept a landscape nearly empty of a long tradition of architecture, of all the antiquities and monuments found so often in his views of Europe and the Middle East. However, the opposite was true that America offered Bartlett to record a landscape before it became settled. "He who traveled in America", said Willis, "must feed his imagination on the future. Instead of looking through a valley, which has presented the same aspect for hundreds of years, the American sees a valley with what it will be, the villages that will soon sparkle on the hill-sides, the mills, bridges, canals, and railroads that will span and border the stream. And it is for this fact that Bartlett's views of America are so valuable, because they capture the landscape before the developments of man set in: the buildings, barges, viaducts, cart paths and roads and deforestation that now make certain views nearly unrecognizable from this period. Please note: the terms used in our auctions for engraving, etching, heliogravure, lithograph, photogravure etc. are ALL prints on paper, and NOT blocks of steel or wood. "ENGRAVINGS" is the term commonly used for these paper prints that were created from a master plate, and were the most common method in the 1700s and 1800s for illustrating old books. These paper prints or "engravings" were inserted into the book with a tissue guard or onion skin frontis to protect them from transferring the image to the opposite page. These prints were usually on much thicker quality woven rag stock paper, although many were also printed and issued as loose stand alone lithographs. So this auction is for an antique paper print(s), probably from an old book, of very high quality and usually on very thick rag stock paper. A NOSTALGIC VIEW OF AMERICAN SCENERY !
Price: 7.99 USD
Location: New Providence, New Jersey
End Time: 2025-01-07T13:17:33.000Z
Shipping Cost: 7.95 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Material: Engraving
Type: Print
Subject: Landscape
Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
Date of Creation: 1800-1899
Original/Reproduction: Original Print
Print Type: Engraving
