WINTER HUNTERS Original Copper Plate

EDWARD S. CURTIS. Winter Hunters - Apsaroke, 1908. 7.3x5.3" image on 8.9x6.3" copper plate. Plate date 1909. From Volume 4, The Apsaroke, or Crows. The Hidatsa, of The North American Indian. Engraved on plate recto: Winter Hunters - Apsaroke / From Copyright Photograph 1908 by E.S. Curtis.

As it is today winter was a popular time for hunting in the snow country of Montana.

Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) created a legacy that was a monumental visual tour de force, an ethnographic, heroic and theatrical record of the American Indian and their recollected and imagined way of life before the white man. Between 1898 and 1928, working in collaboration with many tribal members, Curtis created an ethno-historical account combined with photographic notions of character portraiture, environmental portraiture, and classical romanticism as well as straight documentary views. He published 20 octavo volumes with around 75 prints per volume each accompanied with a larger portfolio of usually 36 hand pulled photogravures. The North America Indian (1906-1928) is considered the most lavish and elegantly illustrated set of photographic books ever produced. This lot has the unique copper plate made for this publication under Curtis' supervision.
Condition Report: Very Good. Minor scratches, tarnish, dents, abrasions, small dark spots, and ink residue throughout plate surface.