This spectacular Overland Mail Company chromolithograph (circa 1860) is an excellent example of the work produced by Britton & Rey, and served as the cover image of the July 1968 issue of The American West: The Magazine of the Western History Association, according to the Abebook's seller.
According to the seller, the work depicts the
quintessential symbol of the American West: the stagecoach. The
particular vehicle shown in this print was operated by Barlow &
Sanderson, a big-time stagecoach operation that worked the Kansas
City-Santa Fe lines, the California & Oregon line, and in the
Colorado Mining region. Passengers on this journey included a woman
with a parasol, a number of gentlemen, Chinese workers, and a child,
merely a sampling of the diverse faces who populated and visited the
American West. The travelers are seen traversing in front of a stunning
mountain, likely Mount Shasta in California, and across a beautifully
verdant and wooded landscape. The scene rendered in this lithograph was
originally produced by Aaron Stein, an executive of Wells Fargo.
The
printing firm of Britton & Rey was undoubtedly the largest producer
of lithographs in California, the seller's description continues. The two men were the Currier & Ives
of the West, resembling that famous combination not only in the volume
of their production but in their personal relationship as well.
Joseph
Britton was an Englishman, born in Yorkshire in 1825. At ten years of
age he came to America and lived in New York until he was twenty-four.
As a young man he apparently worked there as a lithographer, for in
1847 there was issued a music sheet, "The Shepard's Cottage," from J.
Britton at 559 Hudson Street. In 1849 the lure of the California Gold
Rush struck him and he joined the George Gordon party, the first gold
seekers to make the journey by way of Lake Nicaragua. He went directly
to the gold fields and prospected until he became discouraged by his
lack of success and returned to San Francisco. There, in 1852, he
formed a partnership with C.J. Pollard. The association was
short-lived, however, for in the same year he set up business as a
lithographer with J.J. Rey.
Jacques-Joseph Rey was born in Bouxviller,
Alsace, in 1820. As a young man he studied art and lithography. About
1850 he went by way of Panama to California, where, contrary to the
custom of those days, he did not seek his fortune in the mines. Just
what he did at first is not definitely known, but 1852 finds him
entering into partnership with Joseph Britton. Three years later he
married Britton's sister, thus cementing a friendship and partnership
which accounts for some of the most notable lithography done in
California. Joseph Britton remained a bachelor all his life. He lived
always with the Rey family, a sign of the closeness of the two
gentlemen's friendship. In their lithographic business, Rey was
undoubtedly the artist of the firm while Britton remained the
businessman.
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