Polar Bear
Price range: £140.00 through £255.00
Gibson & Co. printed this polar bear in Cincinnati in the 1870s, open-mouthed among the icebergs under a pink Arctic sky. For most of the people who hung it, it was as close as they would ever get to one.
He brings a blast of cold air and a touch of the absurd to any wall. Put him somewhere he can keep an eye on things.
Polar Bear
The print
Print Quality: Gallery-standard archival pigment giclée, made to order
Media: Authentic 310gsm Hahnemühle German Etching, mould-made in Germany
Texture & Tone: Warm white with a soft, velvety texture
Longevity: Museum-grade, generational permanence
German Etching suits this print especially well. Its warm tone and soft texture echo the paper of the original chromolithograph and give depth to the bear’s fur and the cold blues and pinks of the ice.
Sizes available:
59×42cm, 23×17″, fine art print, open edition
84×59cm, 33×23″, fine art print, open edition
100×70cm, 39×28″, fine art print, open edition
Safe, tracked delivery guaranteed worldwide, with sustainable packaging.
The story
In the decades after the Civil War, colour lithography turned American homes into galleries. Printers could reproduce a picture in colour in large numbers, cheaply enough for almost any parlour, and the subjects ran from landscapes and battle scenes to exotic animals few buyers had ever seen.
This one was printed in Cincinnati by Gibson & Co., a firm founded in 1850 by four brothers from a Scottish family of lithographers, then aged between 12 and 34. Over the following decades it moved into Christmas cards and Valentines, and in time became Gibson Greetings, one of America’s biggest greeting-card makers.
The artist is unknown.
