Raynors HCA 2016-10
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/21/2016
An oversized carte de visite photograph, 3” x 4-1/4 x 3” on a larger printed mount, advertisement for Watkins Yosemite Art Gallery on verso. Slightly foxed. Identified on the mount, “"I certify that L. Heleer [sic] has this day taken the Photographs of the above Modoc Indian, prisoner under my charge. Capt. C.B. Throckmorton, 4th U.S. Artillery, Officer of the Day. I am cognizant of the above fact. Gen. Jeff C. Davis, U.S.A." When the Modoc War broke out in 1872, Heller became one of its primary photographic chroniclers, and was in direct competition with Eadweard Muybridge. The main Modoc grievance was over forced resettlement on reservations, and hostilities lasted into 1873. Heller made stereoscopic views of significant sights in the conflict, and produced a series of twenty-four portraits of Modoc protagonists, which he published under his own imprint in May 1873. Muybridge, however, did a better job of marketing his photographs nationally, so Heller turned to Carleton Watkins to market his own photographs. When Heller's images were published in July, 1873 in FRANK LESLIE'S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER, they were attributed to Watkins, thus obscuring Heller's contribution. Heller eventually sold his negatives to Watkins, and the mount on this copy advertises the "Watkins' Yosemite Art Gallery," from which may be had "the only genuine photographs of Captain Jack, and the Modoc Indians," as well as "interesting points of the Modoc War.
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