Queen, James after an ambrotype by H.P. Osborn. “Bird’s Eye View of Mauch Chunk From Mount Pisgah, showing the Lehigh Gap in the Distance”

James Queen after an ambrotype by H.P. Osborn. “Bird’s Eye View of Mauch Chunk From Mount Pisgah, showing the Lehigh Gap in the Distance.”  From History of the Lehigh Valley… 

Easton, PA: Bixler & Corwin, 1860.  5 x 7 3/4 (image).  Litho-tint by P.S. Duval & Son.  Full margins.  Top margin trimmed just into image as originally issued.  Scattered light foxing in margins.  Very good condition.  Rare.  Not listed in Reps, Views and Viewmakers of Urban America.  A/A

The print was drawn by Philadelphia artist James Fuller Queen based on ambrotypes by H.P. Osborn.  James Queen, a native Philadelphian, was apprenticed as a lithographer to the firm of Lehman & Duval in 1835, when he was just fifteen.  Queen soon became an accomplished lithographic artist, establishing himself as Duval’s principal draftsman.  He drew views, disasters, portraits, music covers, advertisements, certificates, illustrations and any other subject Duval needed.  During the Civil War, when artists were in short supply, Duval wrote to a friend: “James Queen is still with us and is now one of the best artists in the country.”