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Remarkable and extremely rare birdseye view of Aspen by noted viewmaker Augustus Koch, the only known 19th Century view of Aspen.

In addition to its tremendous rarity (there are about 5 known examples of the view), the map provides a remarkablely detailed depiction of the booming town of Aspen, illustrating 83 places of interest, including City Hall, Schools, the Roaring Fork Electric Light Company, Hotels (the Jerome, among others), 2 railroad depots and a publich Tramway, Theaters, Mines and Mining Company Offices, Tunnels, Fire Stations, the Post Office, Schools, Churches, Residences, Saloons and the Race Track, among other places of interest. The detail is truly remarkable.

Augustus Koch's view of Aspen, published by the Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Company of Kansas City, Missouri, was to date known in a few recorded examples, one of which (the smaller version of 56 x 79 cm -- Library of Congress) would appear to be early proof state, reflecting the work of only a single stone. In his survey of American Views and Viewmakers, John Reps located examples in the Library of Congress and at the Bancroft Library. The example described by Reps and illustrated by on the Library of Congress website lacks any color and has significantly less detail than the second example described below. It also lacks the Hudson-Kimberly imprint.

The larger version (78 x 102 cm) would seem to be Koch's finished work, including not just additional printed colors but also significant illustrations not present on the smaller version (for example, the clouds to the left of smuggler mountain). Among the known examples of the larger version of this view, there would seem to be two states, one with printing on the verso (Aspen Daily Times, February 14, 1899) and one which is blank on the verso. It would appear that the Denver Public Library has both states of the map and that the Hudson Kimberly imprint is present on both examples in the DPL. While we have not examined the verso of this example, the old fold marks evident in the paper would strongly suggest that this example was printed with the Aspen Times on the verso.

The example offered here, printed in 4 colors, is similar a prior example which we offered in January 2009, except that it is about 1 inch taller and 1 inch wider. The difference in width is noticeable on the right side of the map, where additional information is shown, which was not on the only prior example of the view we have handled. The most obvious difference between the two examples is the difference in colors. On closer examination, it appears that the prior example we offered (#20151--link below) was issued with one less color (a green tint stone). This does not account for the size difference, which could have been accomplished by masking the plate during a differerent series of impressions:

/gallery/detail/20151 .

Because Koch had left Kansas City shortly after publishing this map and because Hudson-Kimberly is known to have published other views by Koch and there are no known examples of his work after 1898, it is doubtful that there was more than one printing of this colored edition of the map. The examples at DPL would appear to have been cut into four pieces and/or folded, making this quite probably the finest extant example of this tremendous rarity, which warrants further study.

The present example was carried back to Germany by a late 19th Century Traveller and given as a gift to his brother. At some point early in the life of the map, it was dissected into 28 panel and laid on linen, in the style of the folding maps of the period.