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Fabulous Christmas Find: Currier & Ives ‘New England Winter Scene’

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Most Currier & Ives-type “originals” that are found are from reproductions for sale in in Goodwill stores. Sometimes, though, an original can be discovered.

Most Currier & Ives-type “originals” that are found are reproductions for sale in Goodwill stores. Sometimes, though, an original can be discovered.

I was originally contacted about this Currier & Ives lithograph by email from a regular client in December of last year. She had a sales job that often took her across the country and, in her down time, she would hit every yard sale and auction she came across. To date, though, she had never found anything extraordinary.

Still, it’s always nice to hear a client call excitedly about a possible “rare find,” even if it nearly always turns out to be a copy or “in the style of” a famous maker or artist. I didn’t think this one would be any different.

Currier & Ives was a partnership between Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) and James Merritt Ives (1824–1895), a firm based in New York City. Nathaniel had been publishing lithographs on his own since 1834, operating under “N. Currier, Lithographer” until 1856. The popularity of his early lithograph in 1835 of a fire running through New York’s business district, that sold in the thousands of copies in only four days, spurred him on to expand the business in that direction.

James Merritt Ives, a long-time employee, was made a partner in 1857, and the company went on to become the now-famous firm of Currier & Ives. From 1857 to 1895, it is estimated that the duo produced more than 7,500 images of urban and rural America: quaint scenes of famous race horses, ships, disasters and sentimental subjects and landscapes. The firm produced two to three new subjects a week, although it is not known just how many of each subject was printed. Their working practice was to keep printing a subject as long it sold.

Winter scenes are generally the most popular Currier & Ives prints, and the one called “New England Winter Scene” is depicted above. It is highly sought after by collectors. This lithograph was based on an original oil painting by George Henry Durrie (June 6, 1820-Oct. 15, 1863), who began his career primarily as a portrait artist in the New Haven, Connecticut area.

Currier & Ives printed 10 of George Henry Durrie’s oil paintings, including “New England Winter Scene.”

Currier & Ives printed 10 of George Henry Durrie’s oil paintings, including “New England Winter Scene.”

Towards the middle of the century he began to paint landscapes, specializing in winter scenes and activities. Durrie’s winter scenes of rural homes and farms are now quintessential images of 19th-century American life. His work drew the attention of Currier and Ives, who published 10 lithographs based on his oil paintings, nine of them being his winter scenes.

“New England Winter Scene” and “Farmyard in Winter” were the first publish by Currier and Ives in 1861 as a large folio size, followed by “The Farmer’s Home – Winter,” and “Winter Morning. Feeding the Chickens” in 1863. Six more were published after Durrie’s death later in 1863: “Winter in the Country. Getting Ice”; “Winter in the Country. A Cold Morning”; “Winter in the Country. The Old Grist Mill”; “Home to Thanksgiving”; “Autumn in New England”; and, “The Old Homestead in Winter.”

I don’t often get too excited by Currier & Ives-type “originals,” as the examples I see on a monthly basis are without fail from bargain-basement box lots at an auction or found in Goodwill stores. All are reproductions and stuck in dollar-store frames. At best, they are good-quality reprints issued by insurance companies from the 1940s through ’60s. At worst, they were cut from 1950s feed store calendars. But I’ve always hoped that one of these days I’d be surprised by the real thing.

This one caught my attention, though, mainly because of its size, “It’s About 18 inches by 23 inches,” she reported. While the Currier & Ives “New England Winter Scene” lithograph has been reproduced off and on since the 1930s, I’d never seen a reproduction of one printed in its original size. Most have been in smaller sizes, often 12 by 19, or 8 by 10, which immediately labels them as reproductions.

The original “New England Winter Scene” was originally issued in 1861 as a “Large Folio” size, with the image measuring 16.7 inches by 23.10. This one, I felt, deserved a follow up, and a flurry of back-and-forth emails and images of the markings ensued. Based on everything I could see, this one warranted a physical appraisal, which was arranged via a referral.

Unlike many such cases in the past with these prints, this one did turn out to be an original and early Christmas present for my client. She later sold it to a private collector for more than $4,500.


Mike Wilcox, of Wilcox & Hall Appraisers, is a Worthologist who specializes in Art Nouveau and the Arts and Craft movement. He can be reached through his website Antique-Appraise.com website.

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