The Age of Discovery at Arader Galleries

Arader Galleries in San Francisco was thrilled to host Mrs. Deborah Krikorian’s 7th grade class from San Francisco's Waldorf School last Friday, January 16th. For the second consecutive year, Gallery Director Nicole Lopez presented an insightful lecture focused on the history of cartography and map making during the Age of Discovery (16th through 19th centuries) coinciding with the students’ in-class curriculum.

Students were shown maps and discussed the changing shape of the world as cartographers continued to explore and record their findings throughout the 16th to 19th centuries. Viewing these maps brought to life previous history lessons and stories of explorers traveling the unknown for the students.

Season's Greetings from Arader Galleries

As the holiday season draws near, the quest to find the perfect gift begins!

Please stop by Arader Galleries throughout the holiday season to view our
impressive collection of original maps, engravings,
lithographs, and watercolors.

Hours:

Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm

Saturday 11am - 5pm

Holiday Hours:

December 24th (Christmas Eve) - 11am - 3pm

December 25th - Merry Christmas!

December 26th - Closed

December 31 - Closed

January 1st - Happy New Year!

January 2 - Closed

An interview with Graham Arader

Photograph by Ben Hoffmann

ForbesLife Magazine conducted an insightful interview with Graham Arader about his 40-plus years of experience in the map and rare book world. Beginning with a tour of the Rare Books Vault located in the New York Gallery, Mr. Arader presents an inside view into his world of collecting and dealing rare maps, books and prints and discusses those in his profession who have taken their love for rare maps too far.

"Maps combine art, power, psychology, history, commerce, and fantasy" states Mr. Arader from his gallery at 29th East 72nd Street in New York City. Mr. Arader began his business while in college at Yale. He was captain of the squash team and all–Ivy League for three years--but his life changed when he met Alexander Orr Vietor, the curator of Yale's map collection. "I am the only guy in history who used Yale as a trade school," Arader says. "Mr. Vietor let me use his personal reference library and taught me the standards of collecting. I sold $100,000 in maps my senior year in college.”

With an extensive collection of maps, globes, natural history and botanical prints and great love of history, Mr. Arader has amassed an inventory of over $600 million, spread throughout his five galleries nation-wide. He has also seen first hand the underside of the dealing world and has worked with the FBI and government agencies to capture and convict map and rare book thieves.

With no plans of stopping anytime soon, Mr. Arader continues to collect, deal and make charitable contributions to schools and organizations, hoping to entice and educate the public about these rare and fascinating pieces of history. As he dutifully states, “They tell history in a way you can't get in any other art form.”

To read the full interview, please visit: ForbesLife Magazine

Building Blocks for Education

Arader Galleries is proud to announce that its founder and namesake, W. Graham Arader has gifted Northeastern University a number of historically significant maps, engravings, woodcuts and botanical watercolors. The Arader Galleries Collection is on display at Snell Library, and the pieces have been incorporated into a new course, “Picturing the World,” introduced by Georges Van Den Abbeele, founding dean of the College of Social Studies and Humanities and is co-instructed by English professor Beryl Schlossman.

“The Arader Galleries Collection has enhanced our course in a tremendous way,” said Dean Van Den Abbeele. “By giving students access to these works, we have quite literally brought history into the classroom. The pieces we’ve acquired from the nation’s leading expert on historically significant maps underscore Mr. Arader’s support of cultural institutions and his commitment to making these bits of history available to a greater audience.

“Dean Van Den Abbeele and Professor Schlossman have created an innovative curriculum that delves deeply into the historic relationships between early exploration and trade, and the beauty and science of nature, technology and art,” Arader said. “Arader Galleries and I are thrilled to provide Northeastern University with these important works so students can see firsthand their beauty and understand their historic importance.”

Early Streetcar Scene of San Francisco

Eduard Hildebrandt (1818 - 1869)
San Francisco Streetcars
c.1864
Paper size: 14 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches; 16” x 21” framed
Watercolor on Whatman paper
Signed lower right: E. Hildebrandt
Inscribed lower left: San Francisco

This lovely street scene depicts a view of San Francisco up California Street past Montgomery Street. There is a wonderful sense of one-point perspective in the picture plane with notable local landmarks on either side of the prominently featured road: the Parrott Building and St. Mary's are seen off to the right, to the left is Grace Church, and in the background is Nob Hill. A steam-powered trolley car divides the foreground from the background while a scene of barrels being unloaded exists in along the picture’s center.

Born in Danzig in 1818, Edward Hildebrandt came from a family of artists, his brother being the notable marine painter Trite Hildebrandt (1819 - 1855). An influential time in his career spanned the dates 1860 - 1862 when he went on a grand world tour. His stops included the Middle East, India, Singapore, Siam (Thailand), Macao, Hong Kong, China, The Philippines, Japan and the United States. Hildebrandt worked primarily with watercolors to document the sites that he saw which were then published in Berlin as chromolithographs in 1864. Hildebrandt’s original watercolors were exhibited twice in the later years of his life: in London in 1866 and at an exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1868, just a year prior to his death in Berlin. For more information on this fascinating watercolor, please call Arader Galleries at 415.788.5115, or visit our San Francisco location at 435 Jackston Street.

Arader Galleries is also pleased to present our new catalog, California, celebrating the rich history of Northern California, from the time of exploration, to the advances in photography that captured the beauty of the area, and including the birds and mammals that are native to Northern Calfornia. Please contact contact Arader Galleries San Francisco location to request a copy.

San Francisco Fall Antiques Show

View of Hong Kong Island
Chinese, c. 1845-1855
Gouche on pith paper

Ernst Friedrich Carl Lang (1748-1782)
Gouache on vellum ornithological painting

Arader Galleries is happy to announce that we will be participating in the San Francisco Fall Antiques show this year!

The San Francisco Fall Antiques Shows runs from October 27th to the 30th, 2011 at the Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason. Tickets to the San Francisco Fall Antiques show may be purchased at http://www.sffas.org. We hope you will stop by to see our extraordinary collection of antique prints, maps and original watercolors!

Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason, San Francisco
October 27 to October 30, 2011
Thursday - Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, Noon to 5 p.m.

Currier and Ives :: 19th Century Americana

The publishing firm of Currier & Ives created the most popular and highly regarded lithographs of quintessentially American scenes ever produced. The quality, vast scope and engagingly populist style of their works have made their names synonymous with an idealistic vision of 19th-century American promise and optimism.

Nathaniel Currier began his lithographic career as an apprentice in 1828. By the mid-1830’s he had established his own firm on Spruce Street in New York City. In 1857 James Ives became a partner in the flourishing business, which went on to produce over 7,000 lithographs by 1907.

Currier & Ives was undoubtedly the most prolific firm of lithographers in America, its output greater than that of all the other firms combined. The remarkable scope of this production was matched by the company’s ability to anticipate popular themes and subject matter. Among their many works are lithographs depicting sporting, railroad and rural scenes, marine, and western views, as well as foreign and domestic city views, historical tableaux, and a wide range of sentimental, morally instructive and advertising images. Arader Galleries presently has available a remarkable number of the most spectacular lithographs produced by this renowned firm. Please visit our San Francisco gallery location to see our fine selection of these prints, or call us at 415.788.5115 to receive our Currier & Ives catalog.