Laura B. (doorman-to-the-cats) reviewed Currier & Ives Printmakers to the American People by Harry T. Peters on + 8 more book reviews
This book has important information about how the famous Currier & Ives business partnership which produced some of the most well-known and distinctly American/distinctly New York art prints came into being, evolved, changed, and finally, suffered dissolution. There is also insight on the different artists who designed some of the lithograph prints, and on the design and lithography process, as there are some surviving sketches and notes reproduced in the book which show that there were some early drafts of designs for prints which were changed, edited, and reworked so that they contained elements different from the initial concept. There are also a number of (mostly small in size) reprints of print pictures which would be considered politically incorrect these days, because they portrayed black people in situations that would be considered making jokes at their expense through slapstick comedy. Alas, though this book is itself oversized, it often fails to do justice to the prints it reproduces, and the printing process used tends to produce reprints which are not sharp.
