“THE CLICK OF A SHUTTER OPENED THE DOOR TO ETERNITY”: SIGNED VINTAGE OROTONE PRINT BY EDWARD CURTIS, THE LUMINOUS OLD WELL AT ACOMA, MOUNTED AND FRAMED IN HIS STUDIO

CURTIS, Edward. Photograph signed. “The Old Well at Acoma.” (Seattle, Washington: Curtis Studio), circa 1904 / printed circa 1920. Vintage orotone print (9 by 11 inches), mounted in original Seattle studio frame (12 by 14 inches), with original printed “Curtis Studio” label (5 by 3-1/2 inches) affixed to frame back.

Vintage orotone print by Edward Curtis, titled “The Old Well of Acoma,” signed by him and distinctly marked with his copyright insignia (wetstamped at the lower corner of the image), this handsome 9 by 11-inch photograph printed at his Seattle “Curtis Studio” and ultimately published in Curtis’ multi-volume masterpiece, The North American Indian (1907-30). Very fine condition in beautiful original frame.

In 1904, in the earliest years of work on his “brilliantly realized” masterpiece North American Indian (1907-30), Edward Curtis photographed the people of Acoma Pueblo and their everyday life (Parr & Badger I:73). A warmly evocative 9 by 11-inch framed orotone print of three figures collecting water from a shallow rock pool, this memorable photograph was ultimately published in Volume XVI (1926) of what is considered “without a doubt one of the jewels of 20th-century bookmaking” (Roth, 4), and possesses details so precise that the designs on the distinctive Acoma pots can be easily discerned. Printed at Curtis’ own Seattle studio prior to its publication as Plate No. 571 in his multi-volume work, the print is mounted in its original Seattle studio frame and captioned on the original studio label affixed to the frame back as “The Old Well of Acoma. One of the most interesting and picturesque spots in this beautiful and historic village is the old well,” and the caption continues with a brief history of Acoma Pueblo and Curtis’ own photographic project.

Titled “At the Old Well of Acoma” upon publication in North American Indian, this fine print represents three decades of “scrupulous research and field work,” in which Curtis’ artistry is fully revealed in these “exquisitely beautiful, preciously printed, warm-toned photographs… filled with the carefully composed masses of light and shadow that link them unmistakably to Stieglitz and the Pictorialists. For these artists, the click of a shutter opened the door to eternity” (Roth, 5). Printed at Curtis’ own Seattle studio prior to its publication as Plate No. 571 in his multi-volume work, the print is mounted in its original Seattle studio frame and captioned on the original studio label affixed to the frame back as “The Old Well of Acoma.” This was printed using the orotone method that was perfected and popularized by Curtis. In that process, a photograph was printed from a negative onto a glass plate covered with a gelatin silver emulsion, then painted on the plate’s back “with gold mixed with banana oil or with bronze powders mixed in resin to give the appearance of gold” to the image (Baldwin, 62). See Open Book, 48. With Curtis’ signature and annotated copyright sign wetstamped onto the lower corner of the image.