[FORE-EDGE PAINTING]
IRVING, WASHINGTON. A History of New York. London: Thomas Tegg, 1924. Blue morocco for Sotheran's of Piccadilly, blue straight-grain morocco gilt, all edges gilt, with a concealed painted fore-edge with a view of City Hall by Miss C. Currie, with her signed calligraphic manuscript attestation slip numbered 33 bound in. 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches (19 x 11.25 cm); xxx, 368 pp. Some rubbing to joints and corners, a small defect touching the rear gilt border at the level of the first raised band, still sound, and a handsome and typically well-painted fore-edge by one of the great practitioners of the art.

Carl Weber notes that Miss Currie's paintings were produced exclusively for Sotheran's, and he draws attention to her (apparently unique) manner of numbering them. This practice enables an approximate date for the present painting to be derived. As number 26 of her works was offered in 1890, and she seems, on average, to have offered around three paintings per year, it seems plausible that the present example was executed in the early 1890s, perhaps 1893 or 1894. Carl J. Weber Fore-Edge Paintings 1966 pp. 150-152.