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William Reese Company AMERICANA ● RARE BOOKS ● LITERATURE AMERICAN ART ● PHOTOGRAPHY __________ 409 TEMPLE STREET NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT 06511 (203) 789-8081 FAX (203) 865-7653 [email protected] www.williamreesecompany.com Bulletin 41 Original Works of American Art Beautiful French Album of Watercolors of Lepidoptera After Abbot 1. [After Abbot, John]: [ALBUM OF WATERCOLOR DRAWINGS OF BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS AFTER ABBOT, TITLED IN MANUSCRIPT:] HISTOIRE NATURELLE DES LÉPIDOPTÈRES LES PLUS RARES DE GÉORGIE D’APRÈS LES OBSERVATIONS DE M. JEAN ABBOT. IMPRIMÉ À LONDRES EN 1797. [France. 1800-1830]. Manuscript title within a red ruled border, 2pp. manuscript index in rear. Forty pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings, each captioned in red ink, recto only on 40 sheets of wove paper (watermarked Horne). Oblong octavo. Con- temporary half black morocco and blue boards, yellow endpapers. Lacks front free endpaper. Very good. John Abbot was one of the most important Ameri- can natural history artists and his illustrations are amongst the finest ever made. Born in Lon- don in 1751, Abbot sailed for Virginia in July 1773, with orders for both actual specimens and drawings of the local insects. For the next two years he continued to collect and paint, sending home three insect collections, although only one arrived safely. The loss of these two valuable collections at sea together with the worry over political unrest in Virginia led Abbot to move to Georgia. He settled in St. George Parish (later Burke County), Georgia in December 1775. Abbot traveled widely throughout Georgia devoting his time to the study of the natural flora and fauna. The flow of specimen collec- tions and watercolors of insects ensured that his name became known to many of the foremost natural scientists and collectors of the day, both in America and Europe. Abbot’s NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RARER LEPIDOPTEROUS INSECTS OF GEOR- GIA was first published in London in 1797. The present French manuscript includes forty watercolors based on the plates from that edi- tion. The images comprise fifty-three depictions of butterflies and moths on the forty sheets, with eleven of the images including depictions of the lepidoptera in caterpillar form and several with depictions of flora and/or chrysalis. Each image is captioned in French above or below the image and numbered 1to 40 in the upper right corner; the alphabetical index corresponds to each watercolor ensuring that no images have been removed from the album. Between 1829 and 1837 interest in Abbot in France was greatly elevated due to the publication of a new work based on Abbot watercolors commissioned by lepidopterists Jean Baptiste Boisduval and John Eatton LeConte. It would seem pos- sible that this album was related in some way to lepidopterist Jean Baptiste Boisduval. Vivian Rogers-Price, JOHN ABBOT IN GEORGIA: THE VISION OF A NATURALIST ARTIST (Madison, Ga.: Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, 1983). John V. Calhoun, “A Glimpse into a Flora et Entomologia” in JOURNAL OF THE LEPIDOPTERISTS’ SOCIETY 60:1 (2006). $14,000. A Rare Period Oil Painting of an Act in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show: A Great Show Business Painting 2. Agoust, Alfred (French, b. ca. 1870): [BUFFALO BILL AND THE “FRENCHMAN’S BOTTLE GAG,” A COMIC TABLEAU FROM THE WILD WEST SHOW]. 1893. Oil on canvas, laid down on wood, 22 x 30 inches. Signed and dated lower left: “Alfred Agoust / 1893.” Titled: “Buffalo Bill” on Kennedy Gallery labels. Provenance: Kennedy Galler- ies; Collection of Edward Eberstadt & Sons. Superb displayable condition. Handsomely presented in a period-style gilt American exhibition frame. This entertaining painting depicts a version of the comedy pantomime routine called “The Frenchman’s Bottle Gag” performed in England by Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. The painting shows a bewildered Buffalo Bill ready to come to blows with two Cockney characters stealing drinks from his flask. A prominent historian of performance tells us: “The gag, made famous in Paris by the Scanlon Brothers and their collaborator, the Agoust Family Jugglers, in the long playing three-stage acrobatics, magic, and pantomime spectacular, Le Voyage en Suisse, usually involves two clowns, a ridiculously dressed Frenchman, and his bottle. The clowns steal his bottle and surreptitiously sneak sips back-and-forth, as the bewildered Frenchman desperately attempts to figure out who’s got his bottle. This image is of costers or pearlies, East End London cockneys, victimizing the Buffalo Bill character - the old Hanlon & Agoust drinking routine re-costumed for the Wild West show’s British audience.” Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show made two extensive tours of England and Europe prior to the date of this painting: 1887-88, arriving for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee; and 1889-93, playing the great theaters and fairgrounds. The 1893 tour was at the height of the show’s fame. The 1893 show program states: “Since the visit of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West to England and its remarkable engagement in London, at West Brompton, in 1887, a history and tour have been made, such as no organization of its magnitude and requirements ever accomplished.” Henri Agoust, the Hanlon’s long-time collaborator (the parties later fell out and sued each other in a bitter legal dispute), had a son named Alfred, a member of the Agoust Family Jugglers. According to a census of traveling show people, he would have been in his early twenties in 1893. His biography is otherwise unknown. It seems likely that the juggling Alfred Agoust was also the well-trained, talented artist responsible for this magnificent show business painting, its atten- tion to costume, props, and comic gesture demonstrating the specialized knowledge of the insider. Almost all images of the Wild West Show are found in the great lithographic posters and photographs produced by the William F. Cody publicity machine. Period oil paintings of the Buffalo Bill act are very rare indeed. This wonderful image, showing a comic routine Buffalo Bill evidently adopted from European circus acts, is a unique contribution to the iconography of the Wild West Show. John A. McKinven, THE HANLON BROTHERS. THEIR AMAZING ACROBATICS, PANTOMIMES AND STAGE SPECTACLES (Glenwood, Il.: David Meyer Magic Books, 1998), passim. BUFFALO BILL’S WILD WEST AND CON- GRESS OF ROUGH RIDERS OF THE WORLD (Chicago: Blakely Printing Company, [1893]), passim. British Fairground Ancestors, Showmen, Circus and Fairground Travellers Index. $47,500. Fueling the Gold Rush 3. [Alaska]: Kruse, Max H.: CITY BREWERY IN SKAGWAY ALASKA. SACKE, PROPR. [Skagway, Ak.] June 29, 1900. Pen and ink drawing, 8 x 5 inches. Faint smudging along lower edge. Overall bright and clean. Near fine. A lovely sketch of an Alaska brewery, showing a large brew house set against the side of a hill, with several outbuildings in the background. The large sign above the door reads, “City Brewery,” and the proprietor is shown tapping a keg in the middle foreground. A quaint picture of the support industry so vital to the Klondike Gold Rush. $1250. Original Drawing of a Key Western Military Post 4. Alden, A. F.: [ORIGINAL PEN AND INK DRAWING OF FORT D. A. RUSSELL, WYOMING TERRITORY, 1869]. Fort Russell, Wyoming Territory. August 1869. Single sheet of heavy gauge paper, 8 x 11 inches. Three tiny punch holes near the top edge, a few pinholes at top left corner. Very good. A beautifully-executed ink and wash drawing of Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming Territory, near present-day Cheyenne. It is titled, “Ft Russell. from the South.” Fort Russell was established in 1867 to protect workers building the Union Pacific Railroad, and was named in honor of David Allen Russell, a Civil War general killed at the Battle of Opequon. The post remained a key fort throughout the various conflicts with the Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes of the region over the decade after its establishment. Nothing is known of the artist, who signs the drawing, “A. F. Alden, Del. Aug. 1869.” He could have been a company artist for the Union Pacific Railroad, or perhaps a young soldier memorializing his experiences in the West. Whoever he was, his eye for detail was extraordinary. The drawing shows the fort from the south, a dense cluster of buildings situated on a ridge, proudly flying an American flag at center. A visually evocative historical work from the American West. $12,500. A Manuscript Panoramic View of Camp Apache, Arizona Territory 5. [Arizona]: [Anderson, G.]: CAMP APACHE, ARIZONA, 1876. [Camp Apache, Az.]. Aug. 5, 1876. Gray watercolor, highlighted with red, white, and blue watercolor, on paper. Image size: 16¼ x 21 inches. Sheet size: 20 x 25 inches. Titled in block letters in the lower margin. Signed and dated lower mid-left image: “G. Anderson / Aug. 5th 1876.” Provenance: Kennedy Galleries (labels); Collection of Edward Eberstadt & Sons. Three short marginal tears expertly repaired. Excel- lent displayable condition. Matted and glazed, in a modern decorated gilt frame. A panoramic view of Camp Apache, a U.S. Army stronghold in the Indian reservation established on the White Moun- tain River in southeastern Arizona Territory to control the White Mountain and Cibecue Apaches. Indian fighter Gen. George Crook and his Apache Scouts (pacified Apaches who wore U.S. Army uniforms) operated from the base, attempt- ing to control the marauding tendencies of the wild tribes. The fort was originally built in 1870 as Camp Ord under the supervision of Brevt. Col. John Green of the U.S. 1st Cavalry. It was renamed several times: first Camp Mogollon, then Camp Thomas, and then Camp Apache (its name when this drawing was done). The post was designated with its famous appellation of Fort Apache in 1879. In 1869, Green explained the strategic reasons for establishing the camp: “I have selected a site for a military post on the White Mountain River which is the finest I ever saw.