Books & Manuscripts, including Americana

13 original parts [all published], oblong folio (295 x 375 mm). THE COMPLETE SET OF 52 TINTED LITHOGRAPHED PLATES containing city views by Louis Kurz and the Chicago Lithographing Company; letterpress prospectus tipped-in to part I. (Occasional marginal spotting, offsetting from plates to text.) ALL IN ORIGINAL LITHOGRAPHED PICTORIAL WRAPPERS (chipping and splits to spines, several covers detached, small tear to upper cover of part 7 not affecting letters, part 13 lower cover tears with losses to upper corner, scattered soiling and spotting); folding case.

FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL MONTHLY PARTS OF THIS PRE-FIRE RARITY

Chicago Illustrated remains the most comprehensive record of the physical appearance of the city destroyed by the Great Fire of 1871. Austrian-born Louis Kurz created the lithographed views "exud[ing] an almost palpable sense of the hustle and bustle of pre-Fire Chicago" (Chicago 101). Otto Jevne and Peter M. Almini, decorators known for ornamental painting, joined with Kurz (who would later form the famous Kurz & Allison firm) and two other lithographers to form the Chicago Lithographing Company. James W. Sheahan, a journalist who published the Chicago Times and later the Chicago Post, contributed the text. Their business would later be destroyed in the 1871 fire.

The complete work was originally meant to include 25 parts. In the prospectus for the work, Jevne & Almini promised "to publish, in Monthly Parts, an illustrated History of Chicago,---that is, a history of the more important and striking evidences of the city's improvement and enterprise." The parts were issued at $1.50 per fascicle until the project terminated in January 1867. "Constituting the best visual evidence of their appearance, the plates exude an almost palpable sense of the hustle and bustle of pre-Fire Chicago...In general Chicago Illustrated is a paean to the new colossus rising alongside the lake" (Chicago 101). Chicago Ante-Fire Imprints 1047; Caxton Chicago 101, 3; Howes J-108; Sabin 12623.