Catalog Archive
Auction 152, Lot 196

"[Lot of 2] The Pageant of History in Northern California Its Colorful and Adventuresome Beginnings [and] The Panorama of Today in Northern California Its Resources, Activities and Opportunities",

Subject: San Francisco Bay Area, California

Period: 1954 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Printed Color

Size:
21.4 x 14.9 inches
54.4 x 37.8 cm
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The American Trust Company commissioned the Californian artist Millard Sheets to create this lovely pair of lithographed prints for their centennial anniversary. Both maps center on the San Francisco Bay Area, with the first illustrating the rich history of the region and the second providing a more modern view. In the historical map, centuries of history overlap in a collage-like jumble of natives, Spaniards, missionaries, cowboys, Forty-Niners, the Transcontinental Railroad, local wildlife, and more. The second map applies the same aesthetic, but uses contemporary imagery: modern San Francisco, complete with the Golden Gate Bridge and airplanes flying over the city, the governor's mansion in Sacramento, industrial Stockton, skiers out near Lake Tahoe, beachgoers by Santa Cruz, and depictions of the state's agriculture and wildlife.

References:

Condition: A

There is light soiling and/or toning in the wide blank margins of both sheets, else fine.

Estimate: $275 - $375

Sold for: $200

Closed on 2/18/2015

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