Ap-Pa-Noo-Se, a Saukie Chief: Original Hand-Colored McKenney & Hall Lithograph, 1848

Description

This is an original 19th century hand-colored McKenney and Hall lithograph of a Native American entitled "Ap-Pa-Noo-Se, A Saukie Chief", … more This is an original 19th century hand-colored McKenney and Hall lithograph of a Native American entitled "Ap-Pa-Noo-Se, A Saukie Chief", lithographed by J. T. Bowen after a painting by Charles Bird King and published by Rice and Hart & Co. in Philadelphia in 1848. For his portrait Ap-Pa-Noo-Se (A Chief When a Child) is wearing a feathered headdress, long ornamental earrings, multiple chain necklaces, a presidential piece medal on a necklace, a metallic right arm band and he holds a brown ornamental weapon and a spear.

This original McKenney and Hall hand-colored lithograph is printed on a sheet measuring 10.38" high and 7" wide. There is a small spot in the inscription area on the right and two to three faint barely visible spots in margins. The print is otherwise in very good condition. The original descriptive text pages, 167-168, from McKenney and Hall's 19th century publication are included.

Col. Thomas J. McKenney was Superintendant of The Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1816 until 1830. He arranged to have a large number of the most influential Indian chiefs invited to come to Washington in 1821 to meet President Monroe. McKenney commissioned the prominent portrait painter Charles Bird King, who had a studio in the capital, to paint these native American leaders, who chose the costumes they wished to wear for the sitting. McKenney was given permission to have the King portraits made into lithographs, in both folio and octavo sizes. The resultant 3-volume publication was co-authored by James C. Hall, a Cincinnati judge and novelist who the descriptive. The work was extremely expensive to create and nearly bankrupted McKenney, as well as the two printing firms who invested in its publication. The resultant work gained importance when the paintings were destroyed in the great Smithsonian Museum fire of 1865. The McKenney and Hall portraits remain the most complete and colorful record of these pre-Civil War Native American leaders. less