EDWARD S. CURTIS. Plate 444 Quiet Waters - Yurok, 1923. 15.25x11.25" photogravure on 17x12.75" Holland Van Gelder paper mounted on envelope remnants. Print date 1924. From Portfolio 13, Northern California and Southern Oregon, of The North American Indian. Inscribed in pencil on print recto: Quiet Waters - Yurok / From Copyright Photograph 1923 by E.S. Curtis / Photogravure Suffolk Eng. Co. Cambridge Mass. / 10 / P11 / HP1110 / several x's throughout; in red pencil: Plate # 444 / Printed; in ink: 3875-C. Inscribed on envelope recto: 063 / 1-16-1923 / Quiet Waters - Yurok / 444.

Curtis wrote about this: "The plate shows the ruggedness characteristic of the shores of Klamath river. Eddies caused by projecting masses of rock are the spots chosen for taking salmon in dip-nets, both because the upstream set of the current permits the net to be held with the opening down-stream and because the salmon are attracted to such pools of slack water after combatting the swift current."

To make the photogravure prints from the negative Curtis created a positive, that he would edit on and then working with the great photogravure printing companies in Boston, John Andrew & Son that became Suffolk Engraving Company, they made over 2200 copper plates from which the photogravures were to be printed. Each plate was stored in an envelope that had a Holland Van Gelder Photogravure attached to it of the copper plate it housed, written title information that was to be engraved into the plates and printed on the prints. They also had notes pointing out flaws that needed to be corrected on the copper plates themselves before the final prints were pulled. There are 29 Envelope plate photogravures offered in various lots in this auction. The envelopes themselves only partially survived, tattered and torn.

Fair. Print is crossed out in pink crayon. Corner and edge wear, tears. Print surface is dirty, creased, and spotted with printer's ink. The envelope is dirty, torn, and tattered.