Antique Print of a Group of Quakers Gathering, ca.1790

Antique print titled 'The Homely Meal, Brittany'. Original antique print of an interior with figures having meal, two men sitting on bench in the righ...

Antique print titled 'Chine - Jongleurs et Médecins ambulants'. Steel engraving of Chinese jugglers and doctors. This print originates from 'Voyages autour du Monde et naufrages célè...

Antique print titled 'France XVIIth Cent - France XVIIe Siegle - Frankreich XVIIth'. Chromolithograph of French 17th century office. This print originates from 'Le Costume Historique...

Antique print titled 'Lamas Prêtres des Tartares - Prêtres Mendians de la Chine (..)'. Original antique print with two images on one plate. The first image shows Lamas, Tatarian prie...

Lithograph on wove paper. Signed and dated in the plate. Image dimension: 19x32 cm. A finely detailed scene depicting a Serbian general assembly, with the artist’s characteristic ...

G. Paterson "Dinner Party at a Mandarin's House" Original Engraving After T. Allom C.1840 Original engraving Dimensions 8" wide x 5" high The frame measures 20.5" wide x 18.5" hig...

Great print of New York City Steel engraving after W.H Bartlett Published by Virtue 1837 Unframed. The measurement is the paper size. Free shipping  

This is a very rare and important original image of early Western Americana, or more specifically, "Californiana". Mid 19th century and researched to have been engraved in 1856, it captures, in incredible detail, a group of twelve Native American Indians with a baby in a papoose, gathered together in front of their hanging tools, baskets, implements and weaponry behind them on a "tent like" backdrop. There are men, women, young, and elderly. It is a signed wood cut engraving applied in ink by well known wood cut engraver of the mid 19th century, William J. Peirce (active 1851-1879). It is in excellent all original condition with no additions, no restoration of any kind and it is housed in it's original 1 1/2" double beveled wooden birds eye maple veneered frame with a gilt 1/2" filet interior border. "A Group Of California Indians" is engraved at the base along with a non-descript notation "For description see page 381" which appears in the margin, in addition to an illegible signature. Both these line items are also noted by the New York Public Library, where a digital example exists from the esteemed collection of "The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division Picture Collection", which was assembled in 1986 and recently digitalized. The Library of Congress also memorializes this image and theirs is similarly a digital image. My example came out of the Grant Smith Collection of "Californiana", as is noted on the back of the framed engraving. He was located at Main Street in Bolinas, California (see images on the rear for provenance). Research reveals that he was a direct descendant of the coastal Miwok people who built a settlement in the Bolinas lagoon area. The engraving is referenced in both the New York Library and The Library of Congress as "A Group of California Indians". It is one of the earlier images you will find, along with McKenny and Hall lithographed mages of Native American Indians; and because of it's subject matter and extreme rarity, "A Group Of California Indians" commands attention and interest from the Western art collectors' arena. California became a state on September 9, 1850 making this one of the earliest known images (Circa 1856) of "Californiana" and California Native American...