The business partners Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives of New York preserved in lithographic prints anything and everything that would capture the interest of the American people during the 19th century. They produced prints ranging from American pastimes like hunting, fishing and horseracing, to civil war battles, to the advent of the railroad system and the steamboats, the colonization of the west, and even political caricatures. Never professing to be artists, the partners and the artists they employed instead opted to be purveyors of information since at that time photography hasn't been invented and only through prints could the public get a visual idea of the what's where's and how's and who's of that era. Viewed today, these prints serve as portals by which we can get a nostalgic glimpse of how it used to be in America over a century ago. This reproduced print being shown here was disbound from a 58 year old book. It measures 9" X 12" and the image in it measures 6 1/2" X 9." The print is set on a thick 12pt beige Caslon monotype paper 

Reproduction Currier & Ives print removed from a book shows the nine steps of alcoholic decay as follows: 1. A glass with a friend. 2. A glass to keep the cold out. 3. A glass too much. 4. Drunk and riotous. 5. The summit attained, jolly companions, a confirmed drunkard. 6. Poverty and disease. 7. Forsaken by friends. 8. Desperation and crime. 9. Death by suicide. Original print was by Nathaniel Currier 1846.

Overall size 12"x15", print size 9"x13".