Color aquatint showing a view of San Francisco and down into the bay. Image 10x13" impressed on a 16¼x19" cream thick-stock paper, loose inside folding matting. No. 531 of an unspecified limitation.

Signed in pencil by Luigi Kasimir in the lower margin. Luigi Kasimir (1881-1962) Austrian-born etcher and painter, attended the Vienna Academy of Art and studied under William Unger, who introduced him to the technique of the colored etching. Kasimir was among the first to develop this intaglio process for reproducing illustrations, which are normally tones and sometimes a combination of tones and etched lines. Prior to this, prints were usually hand-colored, with the coloring applied in a casual and haphazard manner. Kasimir would first make a sketch, usually in pastel, then transfer the design to as many as four or six etched plates, printing one after the other and applying the color on the plates, which were all done by hand. An aquatint ground is formed and is divided in the surface of the plate into microscopically small ink cells. This special granular effect of the ground is applied by either dry or wet methods.