[Inscribed photograph of the construction of the left hand of the Statue of Liberty].

Paris, 16 December 1882. Albumen print, 7.625” x 10.125” on larger paperboard mount. Dated “16: December 1882” just below image at left and inscribed by Bartholdi “a l’excellent ami de la Liberté Msr Detmold, son [?] dévoué Bartholdi” at lower right.

An exceptionally rare and captivating photograph of the construction of the left hand of the Statue of Liberty, inscribed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the designer and promoter of the Statue, to an important civil engineer.

Bartholdi himself can be seen at the lower right gesturing toward the hand, while an older gentleman looks on. Three other men are at work on the project, one of whom, seated on the edge of the sleeve, appears to be coated in plaster dust. There is at least one other photograph taken by photographer Pierre Petit at the same session, with all the same men present, but in slightly different positions.

The photograph is inscribed to one “Msr Detmold,” who Bartholdi addresses as “the excellent friend of Liberty.” This is prominent civil engineer Christian Edward Detmold of New York City. Detmold (1810-1877) was born in Hanover, Germany, educated in the military academy there, and arrived in New York in 1826 at the age of sixteen. In 1827 he was engaged by the Charleston & Hamburg Railroad & Canal Co. to make surveys in the Charleston region, and from 1833 to 1834 he was in charge of the laying of the foundations of Fort Sumter. For some ten years afterwards Detmold conducted surveys for a number of projected railroads, following which he became interested in the production of iron, in which he was engaged from 1845 to 1852 in Maryland. Detmold’s expertise in iron manufacturing led to his appointment as the chief engineer and architect of the Crystal Palace in New York. He subsequently traveled in Europe and lived in Paris until just a few years before his death in 1887 and evidently became acquainted with Bartholdi during that time. The Dictionary of American Biography notes that “Detmold was a lover of literature and art and possessed a fine collection of paintings. He spent a number of his last years in the translation of Machiavelli’s writings. These were published in Boston in 1882…” It is possible that the older gentleman in the photograph is, in fact, Detmold, as he would have been about that age, likely visited Bartholdi’s studio, and the placement of the inscription almost implies as much.

The creation of the Statue of Liberty was first proposed by French abolitionist and historian Édouard de Laboulaye in 1865 or 1870 (accounts vary), and work began under Bartholdi’s direction in 1875. For the construction of each section a wooden skeleton was covered with plaster and sheets of copper hammered into shape on the form. This enormous undertaking took nearly a decade to fully accomplish, partly due to funding issues. In order to raise money, Bartholdi hired photographers to document the project, thereby increasing public awareness and donations. Among the photographers hired were Pierre Petit, Charles Marville, and others.

Pierre Petit (1832-1909), of Paris, was a prolific portrait photographer who was known for his experimentation with photographic processes, about which he published articles. He began as a daguerreotypist in 1849, turned to paper photogaphy in the 1850s and kept a studio at 31 Place Cadet. In 1861 he began advertising his Galerie des Illustrations Contemporaines, a series of portrait photographs of celebrated figures, mostly literary, which critic Ernest Lacan called "a monument raised to the history of photography.... In general, all these men…carry in them a personal character, an original stamp that M. Petit has grasped and rendered always with rare success..." Petit was the first photographer to achieve success in the use of electric light in his photographs, served as the official photographer for the International Exposition of 1867, and made numerous photographs of the Siege of Paris (1870-71). In addition to taking photographs of the construction of the Statue of Liberty in Bartholdi’s atelier, Petit made several trips to New York in connection with the project.

Original photographs of the Statue of Liberty (or any portion thereof) either signed or inscribed by Bartholdi are quite rare. There are none listed in the autograph records of American Book Prices Current from 1975 to present. The only other example of a signed Statue of Liberty photograph that we have been able to trace is a carte-de-visite by Pierre Petit of the construction of the head (an image in which Bartholdi does not appear), signed by Bartholdi, offered by the Raab Collection, apparently some time in the last decade.

A rare and fascinating Statue of Liberty photograph inscribed by the great French sculptor.

REFERENCES: Statue of Liberty at brittanica.com; Moroz, Sarah. “How Photography Helped Build the Statue of Liberty,” New York Times, 7 July 2016 at lens.blogs.nytimes.com; “Detmold, Christian Edward,” Dictionary of American Biography (NY, 1930), Vol. 5, p. 258; Pierre Petit (1832-1909), Photographer at npg.org.uk; Pierre Petit at getty.edu.

CONDITION: Good, a few brown streaks and toning to mount, stains more extensive on verso.