PBA Galleries

Contents leaf and 36 gravure plates. (Folio) 21½x17½, modern brown buckram with gilt title. First Edition.

Folio Volume Five of The North American Indian, complete. 36 vintage gravure prints on watermarked "Van Gelder Zonen" handmade paper. Folio Five contains plates 148-183, some of the most desirable of Curtis' North American Indian portraits, members of the Mandan, Arikara, and Atsina tribes. Originally issued loose in portfolio, this copy likely bound from the inventory of prints discovered in the 1960s in storage at Boston rare book dealer Charles Lauriat Co. Lauriat had acquired the remnants of Curtis' venture in 1935, including 19 complete sets, the original copper photogravure plates, and thousands of individual prints. Restrikes were made in the 1970s and 80s from the original gravure plates on paper bearing an embossed "E.S. Curtis" signature, or a "CG" watermark. The contents leaf and each of the 36 plates offered here have only the Van Gelder watermark as found in the original issue.