Currier & Ives was America's longest running printing establishment, publishing over seven-thousand images covering a span of seventy-three years.

The early history ofCurrier & Ives follows its founder, Nathaniel Currier, and the
first lithographic house of America, William and John Pendleton of Boston.

The firm specialized in handmade, handcolored prints. Although steam
presses existed, Currier and Ives felt that the impressions were
inferior to the hand-pulled impressions. Prices for small folio
handcolored lithographs were 20 cents each and $6 a hundred, black and
white. The large folios ranged from $3 to $5 each. They were not
limited edition publishers, so how many impressions of each print were
produced is unknown. In general, the firm did not make an image unless
it felt that it could sell 100 impressions. Stones of prints that sold
well were saved and numbered for later printings if necessary. Stones
of slower selling prints and small folios were reground and reused for
another image. If a number of impressions were needed quickly of an
image, several stones were made as two printers can print twice as fast
and one. To do this, a stone was drawn and it became the parent stone.
Printing with specially formulated ink, the image was printed on
transfer paper and applied to another stone. The image line-for-line
would be identical to the parent stone; however, the grain pattern
would differ, as each stone has a unique grain pattern. Also, if the
new stone had a defect, it would print. New stones and multiple
printing stones answer the question of why impression quality varies
widely in the prints. The firm would also reprint stones at a much
later date. The most celebrated of these was the Life of A Fireman
series, which was reprinted in 1884. (It is interesting to note that
Nathaniel Currier and James M. Ives were volunteer firemen in New York
City.)

The firm of Currier & Ives closed permanently in 1907. Durring
the last fifteen years the firm was not very productive, as tastes had
changed and photography, which was invented in 1840, finally became
easily printable.  It should be noted that the reason for the closing of the venerable
firm was not just the lack of interest by the second generation. There
were also great changes happening in collecting habits and newer
commercial processes, namely, photolithography that took away the
profitable commercial business. America lost most of its lithographic
houses between the years 1870 and 1910. Cheaper, faster commercial
presses were replacing the age old hand run lithographic presses. The
quality of these new presses did not produce images of the same quality
as hand printed lithographs, but the savings were more important than
quality in commercial work. Even today, however, if an artist wants a
high quality lithograph, he will seek out one of the several craftsmen
who will print lithography, as they have over the last two centuries,
off a stone on a hand press.

We are proud to offer custom reprints of the Currier and Ives Fireman prints.  The can be customized with your department or firefighter's name.  The size is 16x20 except for the  Fire Department certificate above.  It is 11x14 and all are fine art Giclee prints and will last for 50 or more years.