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Lot 80
Description:
* A Monumental Antique Scottish 30-Inch Terrestrial Library Globe, c. 1915, the cartouche reading "30-Inch/ Terrestrial Globe/ by/ W. & A. K. Johnston [A.J. Nystrom & Co., US Agents, Chicago]/ Geographers, Engravers/ and Printers/ Edinburgh & London", the 30-inch sphere with hour dial, nickel plated meridian with degree marks, set on roller bearings, within a full rotating mount, the paper horizon band with months and zodiac, the Arts and Crafts style quarter-sawn oak base on molded feet, full height 54 in., full diameter 37 in.
- Notes: Note: William (1802-1888) and Alexander Keith (1804-1871) Johnston began as apprentices to the Scottish globe maker and publisher James Kirkwood before his workshop suffered a fire. Setting up their own workshop, they became one of the most successful globe makers in the world. Their largest globe, seen in this lot, made for institutions or the most prestigious of private libraries, won a number of medals in the Great Exhibition. As was common in the day, the cartouche bears a small overlay label over the Johnston name from the Chicago globe retailer A.J. Nystrom, who was one of several Chicago retailers who imported Johnston's globes. Interestingly, the gores for this globe bear the watermark "J. Whatman 2) he left Audubon in Natchez, and made his way back north. Mason provided the crucial elements not only of the botanical habitats for almost a quarter of the Birds (probably on almost a hundred of the eventually published plates), but even more importantly perhaps the basic design and layout of most of those sheets. This is a possibility which has never been acknowledged in the voluminous literature on Audubon, and is the subject of a new article by Douglas Lewis for forthcoming publication, examining the relationship between Audubon and Mason. Joseph Mason was a crack shot, and in fact killed very many of the birds eventually portrayed in the nearly 100 drawings he made with Audubon. He was very big for his age, and was accustomed to rowing Audubon all day long, on many occasions, in the small boat they brought along with them. When they left Oakley Plantation in Feliciana Parish (where they spent the summer and early fall of 1821, between June 18th and October 20th), the mistress of the plantation, Lucretia Alston Gray Pirrie (1794-1855) offered Mason a "full suit of fine Clothes" that had belonged to her deceased son, Ruffin Gray (c. 1795-12 October 1817) - thus demonstrating that even a month shy of his 19th birthday, Mason could easily fill the suit of a 22-year-old planter. The large group of first-edition plates from the Birds of America offered here includes a substantial number of shore birds (on which Mason did not collaborate), but also a certain number from the period of his partnership with Audubon, beginning with two works from the original flatboat trip to New Orleans. These are the originals for Robert Havell's plates 145, the "Palm Warbler on Sneezeweed" (Yellow Red-poll Warbler) drawn at Bayou Lafourche on 1-3 January 1821, and also one of the prototypes for Havell's plate 187 (Bien # 220), the "coat-Tailed Grackle on Live Oak" drawn at Bonnet Carré on January 4th. Audubon records in his Journal that he himself picked the sneezeweed that he found "in full bloom - Near the Boat," and that Mason had in fact shot the warbler on January 2nd; a few days later he sent Mason and a companion to the west bank opposite New Orleans for the live oak on which to pose the grackle. The "Yellow-Shafted Flicker" [called by Havell a 'Golden-Winged Woodpecker,' plate 37 (Bien #273)] and the "Red-Headed Woodpecker" (plate 27) were probably both drawn at Oakley in 1821, on dead trees doubtless by Mason. Two plates whose original drawings are firmly documented to the pair's sojourn in Natchez - from 24 March to 23 July 1822 - are the "Towhee Bunting on Blackberry" (drawn April 13th, plate 29) and the "Dickcissel on 'Butter-and-Eggs' and Reeds" ['Black-Throated Bunting,' April 20th, plate 384). Others of Havell's eventual prints for Birds of America probably also attest to this collaboration between the young Mason and Audubon (who at this point was exactly twice his age), before Mason returned to Philadelphia and Cincinnati to take up his Audubon-inspired work as a portrait painter. The many masterpieces that they created together are a tribute to the artistic, ornithological, and especially the botanical milieus of New Orleans, the Felicianas, and the Natchez District. References: The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon for "The Birds of America," introduction by Marshall B. Davidson, commentaries by Edward H. Dwight, New York, American Heritage, 1966 John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings, Christopher Irmscher, ed., New York, The Library of America, 1999 Douglas Lewis, "Joseph R. Mason, The First Artistic Collaborator of John James Audubon," 2011, forthcoming.
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June 25, 2011 10:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US
Neal Auction Company
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