222.     HOLTZ, Helmuth (artist). Hotel at Matagorda, Texas; [top left] Church; [top center: untitled illustration of eagle with spread wings, 2 banners, and foliage]; Masonic Hall; [lower left] Courthouse; [lower center] Residence of Col. R.H. Williams; [lower right] Store of M^r. G. Burkhart; [imprint below image] Ed. Lang lith. Hamburg | Drawn from nature by Helmuth Holtz. Hamburg, [ca. 1860]. Lithograph pictorial letter sheet with 7 views (architecture) and decorative element at top center, each element within vine and branch border, image on a bifolium (lithograph on p. 1), printed on ruled white wove paper. Image: 15.1 x 19.3 cm; image and imprint: 15.5 x 19.5 cm; overall sheet size 27.2 x 21.5 cm. Light marginal browning and minor wear along edges, very good overall, better than usually found, due to the poor quality of paper.

     First edition. Amon Carter 1148. California letter sheets abound, but only a few were made for Texas. The image will be included in Ron Tyler’s forthcoming work on nineteenth-century lithographs of Texas. Artist, draftsman, and Union sailor Helmut Heinrich Diedrich Holtz (1833-1915) also created large bird’s-eye views of Indianola and Matagorda, both “taken from the Bay in 1860” (Reps 3981 & 3986). Holtz (b. 1833) in Germany, visited Texas as a sailor in 1860. He served in the Union navy during the Civil War and latter settled in New Orleans. See Handbook of Texas Online.

($300-600)

Auction 22 Abstracts