Native Californians Lassoing a Bear – American Frontier Hunting Engraving, 1873
€ 240
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1873
Sheet size
23.3 × 31.6 cm (9.2 × 12.4 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14129-23
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Good antique condition. Light age toning and scattered foxing, mainly in the margins. The engraved image remains clean and well-defined. A visible plate mark is present. No major tears or losses observed.
About this sheet
Native Californians lassoing a grizzly, an original steel engraving after a painting by F. O. C. Darley, published in New York by D. Appleton and Co. in 1873. The plate title "Native Californians Lassoing a Bear" is lettered in script below the image, with the painter's name at the lower left and the engraver's name at the lower right.
Three mounted men close in on a bear in a wooded gully. The bear stands at bay at the center with its jaws open and a rope drawn tight around it. A rider at the left in a wide-brimmed hat holds his rifle crossways over the saddle and keeps his horse back, the second rider at the center turns his rearing mount away, and the third at the right swings a loop overhead. Bare trees and broken rocks fill the background, and the ground is churned and scattered with branches.
Darley was the most widely published American illustrator of the 19th century, and this plate belongs to the Appleton series of Western and frontier scenes of the early 1870s.
