Edward S. Curtis "Tenaktak House, Harbledown Island" Original Photogravure, 1914

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An original photogravure from Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian. Tenaktak House, Harbledown Island shows the clapboard front of … Read more An original photogravure from Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian. Tenaktak House, Harbledown Island shows the clapboard front of a large house with a carved and painted frieze running along its roofline, a tall carved pole topped by a bird with outstretched wings standing before it, and a long wooden stair climbing to the house from the beach. Tall evergreens rise behind. Tenaktak is Curtis's spelling for the Da'naxda'xw, also written Tanakteuk, a Kwakwaka'wakw people of the British Columbia coast whose village on Harbledown Island is known today as New Vancouver. Curtis made the photograph in 1914, and it was published in 1915 in Volume 10, which covers the Kwakiutl, today called the Kwakwaka'wakw.

From Volume 10, facing page 34. Printed on Japanese vellum, one of the three papers used for the original subscriber sets, with a smooth, creamy surface that holds the fine detail of the gravure. Titled in the plate lower left (TENAKTAK HOUSE, HARBLEDOWN ISLAND), with "From Copyright Photograph 1914 by E.S. Curtis" in the plate below the image. The plate mark shows around the image.

Image: 7 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches. Sheet: 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches.

Provenance: earlier in the University of Oregon Library, whose blind stamp is in the top margin, then the Christopher G. Cardozo Collection. The collection's inventory number is written in pencil on the verso.

A vintage impression from the original publication, not a later restrike. Sold unframed, ready to mat and frame. See less