"The Boss of the Market"
Publisher Currier & Ives American
Not on view
In this humorous street scene, a big bull tosses two men (tobacco salesmen?) carrying large packages of tobacco outside a tobacco shop (at far left).
The New York firm of Currier & Ives grew from a printing business established by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) in 1835. Expansion led, in 1857, to a partnership with James Merritt Ives (1824–1895). The firm operated until 1907, lithographing over 4,000 subjects for distribution across America and Europe with popular categories including landscape, marines, natural history, genre, caricatures, portraits, history and foreign views. Until the late 1880s, images were printed in monochrome, then hand-colored by women who worked for the company at home.
