PLATE 567 OLD TRAIL AT ACOMA Envelope Gravure

EDWARD S. CURTIS. Plate 567 Old Trail at Acoma, 1904. 11.5x15.3" photogravure on 13.3x17.3" paper mounted on tattered paper envelope remnants. Printed 1926. From Portfolio 16, Pueblo Indians, of The North American Indian. Inscribed in ink on print recto: Plate 567 Old Trail at Acoma 1904 - Copyright /Vol. XVI / 567 / Old Trail at Acoma / From Copyright Photograph 1904 by E.S. Curtis / Photogravure Suffolk Eng. Co. Cambridge Mass.

Curtis wrote about this: "This is doubtless the trail built under the supervision of Fray Juan Ramirez, who established himself at Acoma in 1629 and subsequently built a church and a trail which horses could ascend."

To make the photogravure prints from the negative, Curtis created a positive that he would edit on, and then working with the great photogravure printing companies in Boston, John Andrew & Son that became Suffolk Engraving Company they made over 2200 copper plates from which the photogravures were to be printed. Each plate was stored in an envelope that had a Holland Van Gelder Photogravure attached to it of the copper plate it housed as well as written title information that was to be engraved into the plates and printed on the prints. There are 29 Envelope plate photogravures offered in various lots in this auction. Each plate was attached to the envelope. The envelopes themselves only partially survived, tattered and torn.
Condition Report: Fair. Print surface is dirty, creased, spotted with printer's ink, and has tears throughout. The envelope is torn and fragile.