The Mammoth Tree Grove Calaveras County, California. And its avenues. Typographical work by Agnew & Deffebach, San Francisco. Consisting of title page & 9 plates with 22 engravings. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1862 by Edward Vischer in the Clerk's Office of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Cal. L. Nagel, Print. C. C. Kuchel, Lith. Drawn and published by Edward Vischer, San Francisco, Cal. No. 515 Jackson Street, above Montgomery. San Francisco, Drawn and published by Edward Vischer, 1862. First edition, first issue. Title leaf ["frontispiece"] and nine plates, 27 x 34.5 cm. With the exception of the title leaf, the lithograph views are mounted. Letterpress on plates is in purple ink. Contained in a cloth portfolio. Mounted on inside front cover is a lithograph closely reproducing the title leaf, but lacking printer's and lithographer's imprints. Mounted on inside rear cover is a printed sheet with "Index," listing frontispiece and nine plates and a paragraph headed "The Visitors Guide." At head of title leaf: "Vischer's Views of California." Laid in is a single sheet, 34.5 x 53.5 cm, folded to make 4 pages: page [1], "The Mammoth Tree Grove, Calaveras County, California, and its Avenues. Published by Edward Vischer. Introductory Remarks;" pages [2] and [3], "Description of Plates" (description of frontispiece and nine plates); pages [3] and [4], "Appendix. Extract From Hutchings' California Magazine, March, 1859." Vischer visited the Calaveras Grove in 1859 and again in 1861. In 1862, following his second visit, a broadside and a portfolio reproducing his sketches by the lithographic process were issued. Lithographic reproduction ceased when the stone upon which the principal views were drawn was broken. As this process had proved unsatisfactory to Vischer, he turned to photography for the reproduction of his sketches. Edward Vischer (1809-1878), a native of Bavaria, settled in California about 1847. He established himself in San Francisco, principally as a commission merchant. Late in life he took up drawing and was soon making sketches wherever he went. According to Francis P. Farquhar, Edward Vischer & His "Pictorial of California" (San Francisco 1932), Vischer "... developed great facility in making a rapid draft of outlines which he would fill in with greater detail at leisure. He could thus make notes for a sketch while stagecoach horses were being changed, or on other such occasions. He used all manner of media-whatever came to hand. Many of his sketches were made on a bond paper. Some were made on an enameled surface paper. The latter was sometimes tinted with varying shades and colors. He would sometimes scratch off the enamel in spots in order to give a white surface, and produce highlight effect. He used pencil and quill pen and sometimes watercolors or crayon and a soft leather blender." Vischer's early work was reproduced by lithography, but the artist found the process unsatisfactory as it did not faithfully render the quality of his drawings. He had his drawings photographed and mounted the prints on cards or in albums, thus achieving flexibility in quantity and variety for his later publications. Some of the mounts are soiled and/or tanned, mostly at edges, however all of the mounted images are fine, the recto of the folded sheet, "Introductory Remarks" and :"Description of Plates" is dusty, there is darkening to the leaves pasted to the front and rear panels of the portfolio, more so to the front panel due to interaction with the cloth and boards to which they are attached. The portfolio's cloth ties are missing. Provenance: William P. Wreden (H7970). This issue is rare. (#166221).
No statement of printing.