EDWARD S. CURTIS. Plate 343 Kwakiutl House-Frame, 1914. 11.8x15.3" photogravure on 11.3x16.7" tissue paper cornered on 16.7x21" Rives BFK paper, with original 18x22" Holland Van Gelder paper overmat. Printed 1915. From Portfolio 10, Kwakiutl, of The North American Indian. Inscribed on plate recto: Plate 343/ Kwakiutl House-Frame /From Copyright Photograph 1914 by E.S. Curtis/Photogravure John Andrew & Son.

This auction highlight is one of Curtis's most famous abstractions.

Curtis wrote about this: "The two long beams in the middle are twin ridge-timbers, which are supported in the rear, as in the front, by a transverse beam resting on two uprights. At the extreme right and left are the eaves-timbers. The longitudinal and circular flutes of the columns are laboriously produced by means of a small hand-adze of primitive form. This frame is at the village Memkumlis. Another view is given in the illustration facing page 36. Kwakiutl houses are discussed on page 6: The superstructure of a Kwakiutl House is supported by heavy cedar posts. In the notched tops of the hewn side posts, usually six in number, rest two eaves-timbers extending from the rear to the front. Another hewn post supports the ends of the gable timbers in the rear wall, and two others perform a similar service at the sides of the door in the front wall."

Excellent. Print has been conserved. Conservation report is available on request.