MATHEWS, Alfred Edward (1831-1874). Pencil Sketches of Montana. New York: By the author, 1868.

Folio. 31 lithographed plates (4 folding, plate 24 bound in as frontispiece); also with an extra copy of plate VII laid-in. (Very light spotting.) Original blue cloth stamped in blind and in gilt (extremities rubbed, upper cover worn); cloth slipcase and chemise.

FIRST EDITION OF "ONE OF THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER ITEMS OF WESTERN AMERICANA" (Taft).

Mathews has been described as "the most important, from a pictorial standpoint, of the artists who made the Western journey after the close of the Civil War" (Taft). Although he was born in England, he spent most of his life in the United States, as a youth in Ohio, and after the war in Colorado. His Pencil Sketches of Montana established his as one of the fore-most artists of the Rocky Mountain region, and its success prompted him to spend the fall of 1867 in Montana sketching the scenes for his second book of lithographs.

His work was particularly noted for its authenticity and attention to detail, attributes that Mathews contended could be obtained only by the artist, and not by the photographer who instruments tended to distort and/or magnify the subject at hand. Both the Colorado and Montana book have been acclaimed as important historical documents, depicting, as they do, an area of the expanding frontier as it appeared over a century ago. Graff 2710; Howes M-414; Smith 6603 (1888 edition); Streeter 2230; Taft, Artists and Illustrators of the Old West, 1850-1900, pp.72-85. RARE: We trace only 3 copies of this work at auction in the last 40 years.

Selections from the Library of Dr. John Talbot Gernon

MATHEWS, Alfred Edward (1831-1874). Pencil Sketches of Montana. New York: By the author, 1868.

MATHEWS, Alfred Edward (1831-1874). Pencil Sketches of Montana. New York: By the author, 1868.