1854. · [San Francisco]
by Emmert, Paul
[San Francisco]: Britton & Rey, 1854.. Lithograph, 22 1/4 x 29 1/4 inches. Expertly backed on modern wove paper. Minor chipping at edges (repaired), a few of which extend into the bordering vignettes, with several extending into or occurring in the central image. Very minor dust soiling. Overall, a handsome example. An important lithographic view looking towards central Oahu, with sixteen smaller vignettes of residences bordering the central image, including (clockwise from top left) Boullion, Dubois, Capt. Snow, Cartwright, Spencer, Spalding, Ford, Capt. Crab, Sea, Newcomb, Bungalow, Dr. Wood, Sommner, Macfarlane, Porter & Ogden, and Dowsett.
"A Honolulu newspaper, noting the availability of Paul Emmert's series of six views of the city, asserted that the artist had been 'engaged in actual labor' for a period of 'three months, with two assistants.' Although this multi-sheet lithograph was a panorama and thus involved the delineation of only those buildings that could be seen from a ground-level viewpoint, it did include numerous vignettes of important structures" - Reps (p.46).
Paul Emmert (1826-67) was a Swiss-born artist who immigrated to New York at age nineteen, then almost immediately headed west to California during the Gold Rush. In 1853 he moved to Hawaii to open a print shop, where he would eventually make prints of his own local drawings. This print, however, was made by the leading lithographers in San Francisco, Britton and Rey. Emmert intended the present work as part of a six-sheet panorama of Honolulu, and the complete set is all but impossible to find or assemble (OCLC indicates only one institutional holding of a complete set, the Mellon set at Yale). In reality, any print in this series is highly rare and desirable. REPS, VIEWS & VIEWMAKERS 754. (Inventory #: WRCAM48704)
"A Honolulu newspaper, noting the availability of Paul Emmert's series of six views of the city, asserted that the artist had been 'engaged in actual labor' for a period of 'three months, with two assistants.' Although this multi-sheet lithograph was a panorama and thus involved the delineation of only those buildings that could be seen from a ground-level viewpoint, it did include numerous vignettes of important structures" - Reps (p.46).
Paul Emmert (1826-67) was a Swiss-born artist who immigrated to New York at age nineteen, then almost immediately headed west to California during the Gold Rush. In 1853 he moved to Hawaii to open a print shop, where he would eventually make prints of his own local drawings. This print, however, was made by the leading lithographers in San Francisco, Britton and Rey. Emmert intended the present work as part of a six-sheet panorama of Honolulu, and the complete set is all but impossible to find or assemble (OCLC indicates only one institutional holding of a complete set, the Mellon set at Yale). In reality, any print in this series is highly rare and desirable. REPS, VIEWS & VIEWMAKERS 754. (Inventory #: WRCAM48704)