Lot 639
Jackson, William Henry. Rocky Mountain Railroad Album. Steam and Steel Across the Great Divide. Silverton, Colorado: Sundance Publications Limited, 1976. Five pages of text followed by 76 elephant folio (17½ x 24¾") sepia half-tone reproductions of Jackson's photographs. Each print is captioned and a detailed description of each image is included in the text. A bicentennial commemorative edition limited to 3000 copies (although this one is unnumbered). Coated paper on boards, gilt lettering. The boards show a handful of abrasions and a couple of very small tears, but the pages are Fine.
As William Henry Jackson said himself "…It is almost impossible to exaggerate the contemporary influence of the first transcontinental railway…" For more than 25 years Jackson recorded the developing railways of the American West, railways that irrevocably changed the face of the country. The prints in this book are a measure of his dedication and an unmatched documentation of man's will to conquer nature for his own ends. A superb technician, as well as a gifted artist, Jackson's photographs have a clarity of subject and beauty of composition that is remarkable when one considers the primitive conditions and (to the modern photographer) primitive equipment he had to work with. He used enormous glass plates, 16" x 20" or 20" x 24", to make his negatives and the large reproductions in this book are made from contact prints without any size reduction. This magnificent book regularly sells at auction for well over $600.00 and retails around $1000.00.
Estimated Value $500 - 600.
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| Realized $299 |
