With a Detailed Map and a Fine Lithograph View by Julius Bien
Rare California mining prospectus report for stockholders or prospective stock buyers of the California Water and Mining Co., promoting an investment in El Dorado County, California, on the Georgetown Divide.
The company held rights to over 700 square miles of water rights on the Georgetown Divide in Eldorado County and also owned 16 placer mining properties. Besides the Georgetown mining area, the area includes Michigan Bar, Mormon Island and Volcanoville.
Includes an elaborate map of the area with descriptive text in the lower half and a fine double-page lithograph plate based on a photograph - both map and plate are by Julius Bien. The plate is captioned "Hydraulic Mining on the Georgetown Divide El Dorado County California." Bien was a renowned lithographer, and is perhaps most remembered for producing an American edition of Audubon's Birds of America using chromolithography.
The map, also by Julius Bien is titled:
Map of El Dorado County, Cal. Showing the Georgetown Divide and Portions of the Placerville and Forest Hill Divide with the Ditches, Mines and other Properties of the California Water Co. Situated between the South Fork of Middle Fork and the South Fork of the American River. 1880. Julius Bien, Photo-Lith. N.Y.
Rarity
OCLC locates 8 copies, all with erratic pagination, most copies apparently issued incomplete. Copies located at: UC Davis, UCLA, Bancroft Library, Denver Public Library, Kent State, San Francisco Public Library, New York Public Library and Yale).
The examples at Yale and at the University of California Davis are noted as having 53 pages in various pagings, like the present copy; the copies at the University of California Berkeley (Bancroft) and the Denver Public are listed as having 49 pages in various pagings. The latter two copies have a map, but no indication of the plate; the Yale and Davis copies have a map and illustration.
Rocq 1763 lists a Report of the California Water Co., New York, also relating to property in El Dorado County (New York, 1880). [47] pages. Illus. Folding map.