The San Francisco Wasp: An Illustrated History
Easthampton, MA: Periodyssey Press, 2004. First Edition. Folio [37 cm] Gray cloth with the title gilt stamped on the front board and backstrip. Near fine. Prospectus laid in. Item #8474
This edition was printed in a limitation of 400 signed and numbered copies, this is number 111. Illustrated with 88 full-page color plates. The Wasp was founded as a weekly satire magazine in San Francisco in 1876 by the Bohemian expatriate Francis Korbel and his two brothers. The Korbels developed a successful San Francisco business manufacturing redwood cigar boxes that required lithographic labels, which they also produced. Hence, shortly after it began publication, The Wasp began to feature colored political cartoons. By the spring of 1877, it had developed its hallmark folio-size format with a pair of
full-page cartoons on the front and rear covers and a double-page graphic as a centerfold. It appears to have pioneered the mass production of large-scale colored cartoons in the United States.
Price: $150.00