Lot 127
  • 127

Carleton E. Watkins 1829-1916

Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 USD
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Description

  • Carleton E. Watkins
  • 'photographic views of kern country california'
(San Francisco, California: Carleton E. Watkins, circa 1887-89), an album of 72 photographs documenting Agricultural Production on the Ranches in Kern County, California, including Studies of Peaches, Pears, and Citrus, as well as Livestock, Landscape views of County Canal and Rail Networks, Studies of Ranch Architecture, and more, printing-out paper prints, mounted, each with the photographer's credit blindstamp, all but three with a titled, numbered, and captioned letterpress label, three with the photographer's series number, and two titled in an unidentified hand in pencil on the mount, circa 1887-89.  Oblong folio, gilt-lettered maroon cloth with morocco spine and tips, 2 printed folding maps in the rear

Provenance

Acquired in California by Albert Haugstad of Ellsinore, Denmark, circa 1900

By descent to Edith Haugstad, Ellsinore, Denmark

From the Estate of the above to Bo Cosman Lindgren, Tikob, Denmark, 1991

Gift of the above to his son Malte Farnaes, 1995

Condition

Grading these printing-out paper prints on a scale of 1 to 10--a 10 being a print with rich dark tones and highlights that retain all of their original detail--these prints rate a 9 or 10. The photographs are all in generally very good condition. Each of the prints has minor edge fading. A number of the photographs have a few small spots of faint foxing or very minor soiling along the periphery. One has a small brown circular deposit of chemical soiling in the upper left quadrant. The mount pages are soiled and foxed from what appears to be water damage and moisture. Surprisingly, these issues do not affect the photographs and are fairly relegated to the mounts. Two of the mount pages have small wormholes. The last plate has a tear at the bottom edge of the mount and some paper loss. The edges of the pages are worn. A number of the letterpress labels are loose at one end. The maps and the endpapers have soiling and foxing. The second map has a 9-inch tear. The front and back covers are sunned and rubbed. The edges are worn and bumped with a few small tears and losses of cloth and leather. Photographic Views of Kern County California Plate list in page order: 613. Bellevue Ranch 649. Alfalfa in Cocks, Posa 25. Stockdale Ranch No printed title [titled in an unidentified hand in pencil, 'Orange Clings 211'] 46. Stockdale Ranch 50. Holstein Stock, Stockdale 68. Lower Kern Island Canal 76. Band of 7,000 Sheep 63. Artesian Well, Greenfield's 51. Greenfields Ranch 611. Bellevue Ranch 431. Orange Tree Beardsley's 615. Bellevue Ranch 653. Egyptian Corn, Poso 93. Lakeside Ranch 101. Beet Field, Lakeside Ranch 279. The Kern Island Canal 276. The Kern Island Canal No printed title [titled in an unidentified hand in pencil, 'Ditching Camp 655'] 167. Mountain View Dairy 588. Oaks at Fort Tejon 624. Superintendent's Residence, McClung Ranch 387. A Settler's Home 388. Cattle on Alfalfa Pasture 322. James Ranch 332. Bakersfield 368. East Branch Canal 405. Cattle on Alfalfa 342. Keystone Farm 122. Cattle on Alfalfa Pasture 359. Flooding Alfalfa, Panama Ranch 218. Rosedale Ranch 291. San Emigdio Ranch 458. Residence at Bakersfield 451. Flowing Well in Artesian Belt 244. Poso Ranch 478. Kern River at Barker's 640. Alfalfa and Corn Fields 366. Buena Vista Farm 252. Poso Ranch 557. Fig Tree, Tejon Ranch 559. Orange Tree Tejon Ranch 507. Railroad Bridge Across Kern River 684. Calloway Weir on Kern River 675. Head of South Fork of Kern River 671. Kern Valley Water Co's Canal 664. Jackson Ranch 667. Corn Field, Buena Vista Farm 650. Alfalfa Haying Buena Vista Farm 90. The Hop Ranch 546. Mountain Stream, Tejon Ranch 441. Pear Tree, Frazier's 598. Bakersfield 561. Branch of Lemons, Tejon Ranch 560. Lemon Trees, Tejon Ranch 604. Bakersfield 171. Flume, Branch of Farmer's Canal 633. Fourth of July Procession 464. Peach Tree 14 Months from Bud, Park's 712. Cattle on Levee, Calloway Canal 679. The Calloway Canal 680. The Calloway Canal 685. Pioneer Canal Head Gate 681. Kern River at Pioneer Head Gate 687. Pioneer Canal, Near Head 688. Characteristic Scene on Buena Vista Canal 689. Characteristic Scene on James' Canal 690. Characteristic Scene on McCord Canal 691. Characteristic Scene on Stine Canal 696. The Calloway Canal 705. Calloway Canal No printed title [numbered in an unidentified hand in pencil, '699']
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

The 72 photographs in the album offered here comprise a portion of Carleton Watkins's comprehensive survey of the landscape, agriculture, and irrigation systems of California's Kern County in the 1880s.  Commissioned to make the photographs by James Ben Ali Haggin, a wealthy investor who owned extensive acreage in the county, Watkins spent the summer of 1888 in the Bakersfield area, producing over 700 negatives of Kern County life.  The photographs were used by Haggin and his partner Lloyd Tevis to lure farming interests to the area; they were exhibited at local fairs and international expositions, and promoted by the Kern County Board of Trade; and they were sold by Watkins individually, or bound and sold in albums, such as the one offered here.  That the present album was purchased by a Danish chocolate-maker and brought back to Ellsinore, Denmark, may indicate the success of Watkins's photographs in portraying the potential of California agriculture to the world at large.

As California historian Richard Steven Street has pointed out, these Kern County photographs, made when Watkins was nearly sixty, demonstrate the continual development of his talents as a photographer and the sophistication of his eye.  In his informative article, 'A Kern County Diary: The Forgotten Photographs of Carleton E. Watkins, 1881 - 1888' (California History: The Magazine of the California Historical Society, Vol. LXI, No. 4, Winter, 1983), to which this entry is indebted, Street details the history of Watkins's Kern County project and praises the photographer's skillfully orchestrated photographs of daily farming life.  'Although the subject matter was conventional and prescribed,' Street writes, 'Watkins did not treat the images as routine.  Balancing mundane surroundings with his deep commitment to artistry,' the photographer succeeded in making pictures that were at once documentary and aesthetic (ibid., p. 247).  The photographs in the album offered here span a broad range of subjects and compositional styles--from the vanishing-point perspective of a railroad bridge to close-up studies of lush cling peaches, figs, and lemon trees.  Into the flat, hot landscape of the Bakersfield summer, Watkins brought his gift of picture-making, creating depth and interest in the quotidian activities of agricultural life.

As both Street and Peter Palmquist, in his definitive Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West (Albuquerque, 1983) point out, individual photographs from Watkins's Kern County series, as well as albums bound in maroon cloth, were on sale at A. C. Maude's Stationery Store in Bakersfield by October of 1888.  Street speculates that the photographs were printed and mounted in Watkins's San Francisco studio by an assistant, then distributed for public sale.  The owner of the present album has related to Sotheby's this album's transcontinental journey, summarized as follows:

The album was brought from California to Denmark by one Albert Haugstad, chocolatier, around 1900. It is not known why Haugstad visited California, but one may speculate that he went to San Francisco because of the Ghiradelli Chocolate Company, which started production there in 1852.  In 1900, Ghiradelli built a new factory, which may have occasioned Haugstad's visit.  It is possible that the album was acquired by Haugstad in either San Francisco or Bakersfield, although the location and circumstances of his acquisition are not known.   Upon Haugstad's death, the album passed to his daughter Edith, a Latin teacher who lived in the oldest house (built 1577) in Ellsinore, Denmark, the city of Shakespeare's Hamlet.  The album remained in her attic for years, and when she passed away in 1991, the album was left to Bo Cosman Lindgren, the son of one of her oldest friends.  In 1995, the album was given to his son, Malte Farnaes, who had moved to California in the mid-1980s, thus completing the album's circuit from California to Denmark and back again.

Albums or groups of Watkins's Kern County photographs, outside of those in institutions or in the original collection belonging to Haggin and his partner, are scarce.  In his census of Kern County photographs, Palmquist lists three disbound albums in the Library of Congress; one album in the Huntington Library, San Marino; approximately 200 images in the Beale Memorial Library in Bakersfield; and over 100 images in the Pioneer Museum, Bakersfield (Palmquist, op. cit., p. 207).  The original collection belonging to Haggin's Kern County Land Company, which, according to Street, includes approximately 700 images, is now in the possession of the land development corporation Tenneco West, Inc.  It is believed that this is the first time a Watkins Kern County album, rare in private hands, has appeared at auction.      

A complete list of plates in the present album, as well as details of the album's two maps, is available upon request.