Scottish artist and journalist (1824–1892). Original signed pencil sketch of a scene in a Californian gold rush town on an off-white 8.5 x 5.75 sheet, signed in the lower right, “J. D. Borthwick.” Affixed to a 9.5 x 6.75 mount. In fine condition, with subtle overall foxing and toning to edges. Borthwick set out from Scotland to see North America in 1847, where, like most adventurous young men of the period, he caught gold fever and moved to San Francisco in 1851. He spent the next three years traveling throughout gold country, observing and sketching the people he encountered before venturing to other parts of the world and returning to Scotland. In 1857, he described his gold rush experience in a book called Three Years in California, excerpts from which were published in the popular Harper’s Weekly magazine. It is considered one of the most entertaining and accurate depictions of the early Gold Rush period, and remains one of the classic first-person accounts of the ‘Age of Gold.’ As this sketch features a building labeled “Adams & Co. Express,” a courier company established in San Francisco in 1849 to send gold dust to the east coast, it is most likely a scene drawn from life by Borthwick during his time in the city. A fabulous, rarely encountered primary source depiction of the gold rush phenomenon. RR Auction COA.
