On Nee Yeath Tow No Riow or King John of Canajoharie, a mezzotint c.1710 by John Faber the Elder, estimate $2,000-3,000 at Tremont Auctions.
The collection will be offfered at Tremont Auctions, on the outskirts of Boston, on February 25.
During his travels to Europe in the Victorian era, Robbins collected some 150,000 prints that he later left to his hometown. After recent approval was given to deaccession some of the holdings, selections from this extensive collection will be offered by Tremont Auctions in upcoming sales.
Among the highlights is a rare mezzotint of one of the so-called ‘the Four Indian Kings’, the native American chiefs that visited London in 1710, is expected to bring $2000-$3000 (pictured top). Based on a series of official portraits commissioned by Queen Anne from the Anglo-Dutch artist John Verelst (1648-1734), these are considered the earliest known surviving portraits from life of the native people of North America.
This example, from a series by John Faber the Elder, is titled On Nee Yeath Tow No Riow or King John of Canajoharie. He was one of three Mohawk chiefs from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) alliance and one Mohican from the Algonquin nations, that were received in London as diplomats and were transported through the streets of the city to St. James Palace in royal carriages.
Two other mezzotint from the series, including Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row, Emperour of the Six Nations engraved by John Simon and Coning vande Maquas alias Coning Brant engraved by Peter Schenk the Elder were sold by the auction house in August. They made $12,000 and $16,000 respectively.
Prospects of London Before and After the Great Fire by Wenceslaus Hollar, estimate $2,000-3,000 at Tremont Auctions.
Estimated at $2000-$3000 is a pair of prints by the Bohemian artist and mapmaker Wenceslaus Hollar titled Prospects of London Before and After the Great Fire. Based in London, Hollar himself would certainly have witnessed the fire firsthand in September 1666 and, in its aftermath, employed his familiarity with the city to record the full extent of the destruction. He documents the vast swathes of the city that were lost, including the old Saint Paul's Cathedral. The print was in circulation within just a few months but is now rarely seen at auction.
Complete album of Thirty-Six New Forms of Ghosts by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, estimate $5,000-7,000 at Tremont Auctions.
Japanese woodblock prints include an album featuring a complete set of the 36 Ghosts series by the Meiji master Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1892). Bound in silk brocade covers this copy, guided at $5000-7000, includes a title page and the publisher's Imperial commendation page.
Thirty-Six New Forms of Ghosts was the last major woodblock print series by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. At the end of his life he revisited the popular tales of ghosts, demons, and the supernatural from Japanese folklore that he had drawn previously in his 20s.
Pushing the medium of the woodblock print to its limited he used students to assist in the carving of 12 different colour blocks for each design. It was published in parts between 1889 and 1892 by Sasaki Toyokichi and again by Matsuki Heikichi in 1902.
Portrait engraving of Albert Einstein by Hermann Struck, signed by both the artist and the sitter and dated 1923, estimate $2,000-3,000 at Tremont Auctions.
