L. W. Currey, Inc.

AYRES, THOMAS A. The Yo-hamite Falls, this magnificent scene is situated in the Yo-hamite Valley near the source of the Middle Fork of the River Merced, Mariposa County California. It is the highest waterfall in the world - rushing over the precipice, at one bold leap it falls 1300 feet, & the whole hight [sic] from valley is 2,300 feet. [Above title below image]: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1855 by James M. Hutchings in the Clerk's Office of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Cal. Sketched from nature by T. A. Ayres. Printed by Britton & Rey on stone by Kuchel & Dresel, 146 Clay St. S.F. San Francisco: James M. Hutchings, 1855. Lithograph, 25 1/2 x 20 1/4 inches. This variant of the 1855 first printing, titled "The Yo-hamite Falls ..." (later, circa 1860, "The Yo-semite Falls ..."), does not have "Hutchings' Panoramic Scenes in California" printed above the image. "The Yo-hamite Falls is the first published view of Yosemite ... The Yo-Hamite Falls lithograph appeared for sale in October 1855, following Hutchings's epic tourist trip [to Yosemite Valley] ... Whatever the original number of prints ... very few have survived. A survey of library holdings, auction records, and private collections turned up about fifteen examples of this rare lithograph. The specific drawing used for Ayres's lithograph has not been located, and the image ... may be a composite of several drawings. One of the original Yo-hamite Falls chalk and charcoal drawings, on sandpaper, measuring 20 by 14 inches, is held by the Bancroft Library ... In California on Stone, Peters writes that Ayres's drawings, 'made on the spot, have artistic merit and place Ayres in the first rank of the draftsmen of the period'" (Kruska, James Mason Hutchings of Yo Semite: a biography and bibliography 22). Peters, California on Stone (1935), p. 146. A very good copy. Professionally matted and framed. (#168429).