COVERS EVERY DETAIL OF THIS RAILROAD AND ITS OPERATION

CAFKY, Morris. Colorado Midland. Quarto. 467pp. 5 large folding maps in rear pocket, hundreds of photographs, charts and maps, reproduction of paintings in color, etc. Black cloth, gilt. A very fine copy with pictorial dust jacket. Denver: Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, 1965.   $275.
                First edition. One of 6000 numbered copies signed by the author, this being No. 3230. A comprehensive work covering every detail of this railroad and its operation which crossed central Colorado between Colorado Springs and Grand Junction and played a vital role in Colorado and Rocky Mountain transportation for three decades to 1921.

     FRENCH ARTISTS IN CALIFORNIA

CHALMERS, Claudine. Splendide Californie! Impressions of the Golden State by French Artists, 1786-1900. Foreword by James McClatchy. Folio. xiv, 144pp. Illustrated throughout with color and black & white reproductions. Notes and bibliography. Green Dutch cloth, printed paper spine label, pictorial pastedown on front cover. A very fine copy. San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 2001.   $900.
                First edition. One of 450 copies designed by the Yolla Bolly Press in Covelo, California. Signed by the author. A welcome reference and beautifully produced art history which spans the French artists of the earliest world explorations to the Franco-American children of French gold rush artists, illustrated with 80 clearly and expertly printed reproductions of paintings, sketches, lithographs, and photographs. Many of the images appear in print here for the first time. Paired with the exquisite plates are biographical essays on twenty-eight artists, their native roots, aesthetic training, career, travels, etc. The book is divided into six sections which span distinct periods of French artistic activity in California. Sections include French Explorers, French Californios, French Gold Diggers, French Artists in San Francisco, French Bohemians, and the Fin de Siècle of the 1880’s and 1890’s. Together, the book’s biographies, and historic narratives offer a broad chronicle of the evolution and legacy of French contributions to and influences on California’s art community.

     WELL-ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA

CHATFIELD-TAYLOR, Joan. San Francisco Opera. The First Seventy-Five Years. Foreword by Lotfi Mansouri. Square quarto. x, 181pp. Profusely illustrated with color and black & white photographs. Chronology. Red cloth, gilt. A very fine copy. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, (1997). SOLD.
                First edition. A richly illustrated history of San Francisco’s Opera including a prologue which covers opera in San Francisco from 1851 to 1923. Covers the directors, the talented young singers, the costume and set designers and the stars who made our Opera an internationally acclaimed institution. This handsome work features a chronological list of every performance by the Opera since it founding in 1923 as well as reproductions of stage sets and original costume sketches from the archives.

     CHINESE WOMEN AT SAN FRANCISCO'S SUTRO HEIGHTS

[CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA]. Billington, W. C. Chinese Women in Sutro Heights. San Francisco, Cal. Albumen photograph. Titled and numbered at bottom edge. . 4½x7½ inches. Original mount. Photographer’s stamp on verso. A very fine example. San Francisco: Sutro Heights Gallery, W. C. Billington, c.1895.   $300.
                A wonderful image, with rich albumen tones, of four women and one young girl at Sutro Heights, above the Cliff House, standing near Palm Avenue; the entrance gate to the Heights can be seen in the background. All are dressed for the outing; two women and the younger girl in elaborate ceremonial garb, the other two women dressed in black. Typical of Sutro Heights, statutes and palms are seen on the grounds. The photographer, title and negative number (#78) are identified at the bottom border of the image. Billington operated the Sutro Heights Gallery, adjacent to the Cliff House, from 1895 through the early part of the twentieth century. His identification stamp is on the verso. This image was very popular, later reproduced as  postcards, etc.

     WASHINGTON PLACE ALLEY, SAN FRANCISCO'S CHINATOWN 

                [CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA]. Bradley & Rulofson. Washington Place Street Scene. Original photograph. 4x6¼ inches. Original imprinted mount. A very fine example. San Francisco: Bradley & Rulofson, Montgomery Street, c.1875.   $250.
                A wonderful street scene of Washington Place, looking north. Washington Place was located in the northeast part of old Chinatown, just northwest of Portsmouth Square. Shows Chinese men standing outside, laundry hanging in an upper balcony, etc. “Alleys were important commercial frontages and a reminder of similar passageways in the villages of Guangdong Province” (Yung). [Yung, San Francisco’s Chinatown: p.24].

     SAN FRANCISCO'S CHINATOWN BY WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON

[CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA]. Jackson, William Henry. Jackson St. Chinatown. S.F. Albumen photograph. Hand-lettered negative number and title within image. 7½x4½ inches. Mounted. A fine example. (San Francisco: William Henry Jackson, c.1890).   $550.
                A fine image of Jackson Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Although the photographer is not identified, the title, negative number (#6661) and format are Jackson’s. The glass negative of this image is housed in the William Henry Jackson collection, Denver Public Library. A wonderful image with men walking on the sidewalk beneath awnings on Jackson Street in Chinatown. Shows Italianate style commercial buildings with second and third floor balconies; laundry hangs in a second story balcony. All signs are in Chinese; the men walking wear hats and braided queues.

     SAN FRANCISCO'S CLAY STREET HILL, AT GRANT AVENUE 

[CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA]. Taber, Isaiah West. Clay Street Hill, Chinatown, San Francisco. Albumen photograph. Titled and numbered at bottom edge. 7½x5 inches. No mount. A very fine example. San Francisco: Taber Photo, c.1890.   $300.
                A fine image of Clay Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown, at Grant Avenue. The photographer, title and negative number (#3096) are identified at the bottom border, typical of Taber’s photographs. A superior image with men walking on the street (one facing the camera) wearing hats and braided queues, cable cars (Clay Street RR Co.) coming up the Clay Street hill, buildings on the street, signs in Chinese. In the far distance, down Clay Street, can be seen much activity, cable cars, wagons, etc. and a building with “Globe Business College and Conservatory of Music.” The San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed the majority of Taber’s stock and ended his career.

     A MAGNIFICENT BIRD'S-EYE-VIEW CHROMOLITHOGRAPH

[C. L. CENTLIVRE BREWING CO.]. C. L. Centlivre Brewing Co., Incorporated. Brewers & Bottlers of Lager Beer. Fort Wayne, Indiana. Large bird’s-eye-view chromolithograph. 33½ x 47½ inches. Mounted on art board. A very fine copy. Cincinnati, Ohio: The Henderson Lithographing Co., (c.1880).   $1,750.
                A colorful and beautifully lithographed bird’s-eye-view of this Fort Wayne, Indiana brewery with the nearby river, mansions in the background and an oval portrait at the lower left, framed by oak leaves, of the founder, C. L. Centlivre. This handsome lithograph shows the huge glass and brick brewery, the Victorian style office building, and various other buildings including the storeroom, wagon shed, the bottling works, and cold storage, as well as the Centlivre family residence. Along the adjacent streets, clogged with beer wagons, are two C. L. Centlivre electric street cars. The brewery was founded in 1862 by Centlivre, an immigrant from the Alsace region of France. By 1888, the brewery was totally rebuilt and by 1894 it became a complex with a racetrack, picnic grounds, and boating for the people of Fort Wayne.