American Eye of Evelyn Curro

New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1970. First Edition . Hard. Very Good/Good. 12" x 9. 190 Un-numbered Pages Indexed. Black boards with gold spine lettering. No defects to book noted. Interior text and illustration pages are flawless. Dust jacket price $25 is crossed out. A chunk 6 ½ inches by 3/4 inches is missing from bottom of back dust jacket and a one inch closed tear at the spine area. . The American Eye of Evelyn Curro is a strikingly colorful collection of prints and watercolors by the celebrated San Francisco artist. Concentrating on machines such as cable cars and steam locomotives, Mrs. Curro focuses on an era when equipment pleased the eye as well as did the job. The automobile, for example, was a gleaming work of art before it was streamlined into a sleekly functional means of transportation. From the low, racy Oldsmobile Autocrat Speedster to the heavy, elegant Winton Six Four Door Limousine, antique autos were adorned with rods, fenders, handles, and headlights which added delightful and useful detail to an already magnificent design. These were matched only by the early fire engines: the first brightly-colored wagons to be used in San Francisco and Chicago, the rotary windlass model from New Bedford, Baltimore's chemical fire engine decorated with golden eagles. Too often the aesthetics of these machines was overlooked in moments of disaster, but in Mrs. Curro's careful drawings the ornate beauty of each nozzle, valve, and pole becomes all the more apparent. The prize for baroque curlicues, however, would probably go to circus wagons - another of the collectors' items Mrs. Curro has helped to preserve. Emphasizing the intricacies of their carved and gilded sides, she has practically reproduced an old-fashioned circus parade, including calliopes, cages, a bandwagon, and the rare Cinderella tableau wagon. Paddlewheel steamboats and unusual antique toys round out The American Eye of Evelyn Curro together with the sketches of nineteenth-century West Coast architecture for which the artist is so well known. All in all they form a portfolio of Americana which leaves little doubt that the industry of making American equipment has been an exciting and decorative art. Contents in Nine Chapters: Cable Cars, Paddlewheel Steamships, Gasoline Automobiles, Fire Engines and Equipment, A Portfolio of Victorian Architecture, Children's Puppets Dolls and Toys, Circus Chariot, and Reign of the Iron Horse.