J. Hoover Company 19th Century Winter Landscape Chromolithograph AS IS. Depicts a horse-drawn sled heading towards a quaint farmhouse buried in snow, with other homes in the distance beyond a river in the shadow of tall mountains. In the print bottom left is written "Copyright 1892 by J. Hoover, Philad'a." 

Condition: Frame is in poor shape, likely the original. Print shows signs of fading and water damage. 

Overall Size: 22 1/4 x 17 1/2 in. 

Sight Size: 14 1/4 x 19 1/4 in. 

Joseph Hoover was born to Swiss and German parents in Baltimore, Maryland on December 29th, 1830. Trained from youth as an architectural wood turner, he settled in Philadelphia in 1856, where he opened a turning and framing company called J. Hoover after marrying his first wife, Roseanna. After entering a partnership with R. B. Antrim in 1865 the business shifted into a picture frame factory and wholesale print depot. Within a decade he was the most prolific Philadelphia chromolithographer of parlor prints, and was one of three honored at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. In 1882, facing growing health issues, he sold off the retail side of his business and concentrated on the wholesale branch at a plant on Buttonwood Street. By the beginning of the 20th Century he had expanded to a large number of genres, including landscape views, national advertisements, and commemorative prints, and his sons Henry and Joseph Jr. joined him in the business, with the name changing to J. Hoover & Sons in 1904. It retained the name after Joseph’s death from heart disease in 1913, and his descendants continued to run the company until it closed in 1985, by which time it was radically downsized, primary printing reproductions of racy pin-up calendars from the 1930s through the 50s. 

Frame is in poor shape, likely the original. Print shows signs of fading and water damage.