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Swampscott, Essex County, Mass. 11 Miles from Boston. View from Red Rock, Lynn.
Boston: J. L. Robinson. 1871. J. H. Bufford’s Premium Lith. Tinted lithograph, image area 19” x 15.5”, sheet size 24.5” x 20.25”. CONDITION: Very good, no repairs, two light creases in “View From Inner Ledge Off Phillips Point.” A sheet of four precisely drawn lithographic views of one of America’s first resort towns, based on photographs taken by Frederick M. Smith. The topmost view, from “The Inner Ledge off Phillips Point,” shows Lincoln House, Ocean House, and Whale Beach. Below this is “View from Lincoln House towards Lynn,” showing Kings Beach, Black Wills Cliff, two churches and Swampscott Beach paired with “View from the Heights at the head of Burrill St.” showing Egg Rock, the Town Hall, the E. R. R. Station, Nahant, etc. Appearing at the bottom is a view of Swampscott from Lynn, providing an alternative look at Kings Beach, a Methodist Church, the Black Wills Cliff, and Swampscott Beach, in addition to Annawan House, and several previously seen houses. A table demonstrating the growth of Swampscott from 1860 to 1871 is broken into two parts, one on each side of the title. It begins with the heading “Set off from Lynn, May 21, 1852,” referring to the establishment of Swampscott as a separate town, and records the population growth between 1860 and 1870, real estate values and personal evaluations from 1860 to 1871, and the “No. of Houses,” “No. of Polls,” and amount of “Debt,”from 1852 to 1871. John Henry Bufford (1810–1870) was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and in 1829 began apprenticing as a lithographer with the Pendleton firm in Boston. Remaining with Pendleton until 1835, Bufford then left to start his own firm in New York, where he printed book illustrations, sheet music covers, city views, and copies of popular artworks. Bufford also produced prints depicting disastrous fires, and worked as an artist for the Endicott and Currier firms in New York. Upon returning to Boston in 1840, he and his brother-in-law B. W. Thayer and John E. Moody bought out Pendleton, owned by Thomas Moore since 1836. Bufford worked as the primary artist and general manager of the new company, B. W. Thayer & Co., which was one of the first color lithographers in the U.S.—producing work from several stones as early as 1843 or 1844. When Thayer left the company in 1845, the firm became J. H. Bufford & Co. Bufford was one of the most important lithographers of era, his work encompassing city views, posters, book illustrations, sheet music covers, and prints for framing. Early in their careers, both Winslow Homer and Francis D’Avignon worked for Bufford. In 1865, Bufford’s sons Frank and John Henry Jr. became partners in his company. Following their father’s death in 1870, the brothers continued operating the firm until the early 1900s. Publisher John L. Robinson (1828–1899) operated his father’s shoe manufacturing business beginning in 1842. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Nineteenth Massachusetts Volunteers, taking charge of the regiment’s clerical work. Subsequently, he served as a general service and citizen clerk for the War Department, In 1865, he joined the register’s bureau of the Treasury Department. Leaving that position in 1866, he returned to Lynn and worked as a bookkeeper until 1878. In that profession, he established the “Robinson method” of bookkeeping, said to be a more concise method than others previously in use. REFERENCES: “John L. Robinson of Lynn,” Boston Evening Transcript, June 22, 1899; Pierce, Sally and Catharina Slautterback. Boston Lithography, 1825-1880 (Boston, 1991), pp. 130–32.
Item #7910
Price: $1,500.00
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