R101 - EDWARD CURTIS GLASS PLATE

"A Cheyenne Chief." Image is reproduced in TASCHEN 1997 publication "The North American Indian: The Complete Portfolios" page 723. The original photogravure was reproduced in Curtis Vol XIX. Vertical image, man with medicine bundle standing in wooded landscape. 1930. Glass plate size is 13 7/8" x 17". Black & white image in extraordinary detail. When Edward Curtis took his photographs he (naturally) produced negatives. Because he chose to have photo gravures printed, positives were required. (The gravure process begins with a positive the same size as the resulting gravure.) This glass plate was made from Curtis' negative and hence is one generation removed from that negative. The clarity of the plate allows the viewer to see details in sharp focus that one would not be able to discern in the original gravures. The Curtis glass plates were acquired for the Naylor Collection approximately eighteen years ago from the Boston bank that had represented a printing firm involved in producing the gravures.