Picturesque America - Mount Desert Coast of Maine

Title: Mount Desert Coast of Maine, Picturesque America
Artist/Editor: William Cullen Bryant, Edition
Publisher: first edition, D. Appleton, New York
Date: publication 1872-1874 (image dated 1871)
Type: Steel Engravings, hand colored some time after publication
Condition: VG
Size: 12.5” by 9.5” full margin paper, image size 9” by 5.5”  

Description:  William Cullen Bryant and D. Appleton, NY brought together numerous artists of the day to create a beautiful 2 volume work, Picturesque American, or The Land we Live in, A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Forests, Water-Falls, Shores, Canyons, Valleys, Cities, and Other Picturesque Features of Our Country.   The book contained steel engravings and woodcut engravings by famous American artists of the period such as Thomas Moran, Harry Fenn , F.O.C. Darley,  A.F. Bellows, J.M. Hart, C. Griswold, & W. Shepard.

These antique prints, some 130 years old, depict American scenes, while richly romantic in design, quite accurate to place and period.  The original book was published with uncolored steel and wood engravings of all portions of our country.  These prints were finely hand colored sometime after publication.  Sold originally by subscription, the work was issued after the Civil War, reminding the war torn country of a simpler time and the beauty of the country. 

This antique hand-colored steel engraving, by Harry Fenn, is in very good condition with minimal foxing in the margins and some age toning to the paper.  Full margins are present as well as the rough bound edges.  Prints come packaged flat, with or without archival matting.