San Francisco - California [Steel Engraving]

San Francisco: Frederick Hess, 1874 Black & white steel engraved panoramic view. 10¼x24¾ inches (including title below image); overall sheet measures approx. 12¼x30½ inches, professionally matted. A fine and clean copy. This quite rare steel-engraved bird’s-eye-view is surrounded with 22 vignettes of various architectural landmarks of the city including the Nevada Block, Calvary Church, the Palace Hotel, City Hall, Grand Hotel, the Cliff House, the White House, Corner of Geary and Kearny, Mercantile Library - Bush Street, Oriental Block, Sansome Street, London & S. Fr. Bank, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Lick Hotel, Occidental Hotel, Corner of First and Market Street, P.M.S.S. Co’s Wharf - off for China and Japan, Montgomery Street, California Street, Murphy Grant & Co. building, corner of Sansome Street and Russ House -Montgomery Street. Although Baird & Evans (Historic Lithographs of San Francisco) illustrate this view, it is not described in their catalogue because it is a steel engraving rather than a lithograph The view shows San Francisco as a sophisticated metropolis and cultural center in the seventies, during its phase of prodigious urban development after the Gold Rush and before the 1906 earthquake. Little is known of the creator of this rare engraving, remarkable for its technical proficiency, documentary value, and high aesthetic qualities. Baird does not provide any biographical information on Hess, nor do the standard sources. A very handsome engraving! [Reps: Views and Viewmakers of Urban America, 322]..