Jean Zuber and Co

Note: The lithographs published by Jacques-Gérard Milbert (1776–1840) inspired five of the scenes in the Views of North America series. An engineer with the Erie Canal Commission, Milbert traveled throughout the northeastern United States between 1815 and 1823, collecting specimens of flora and fauna for the Museum of Natural History in Paris and documenting landscapes, social customs, and technological innovations. Upon returning to France, he published in 1828–1829 the Picturesque Itinerary of the Hudson River and the Peripheral Parts of North America, a 569-page volume with fifty-four lithographs.

Designer Jean-Julien Deltil (1791–1863) likely never visited North America, but drew freely from five of Milbert’s lithographs to create his decorative panels, enlivening the scenes for a pleasing and engaging effect on domestic walls. In his reinterpretation, free African Americans dressed elegantly appear alongside whites in the View of New York taken from Weahawk; sailors, longshoremen, and a busy harbor animate the View of Boston and the South Boston Bridge; several Native Americans in colorful attire perform before onlookers in the View of the Natural Bridge in Virginia; while in Niagara Falls from the American Side, Deltil adds sailboats drifting calmly beneath the falls.

For a comparable lot, see Christie’s, London, Live Auction 16024, Interiors, 13 September 2018, lot 180; or Bonhams, San Francisco, Fine European and American Furniture and Decorative Arts, 15 June 2009, lot 1010.