Joseph Pennell

The Great Hammer Wuerth 423 lithograph, 1916, on medium-fine cream laid Ingres paper (with both the Ingres and the anchor-and-caduceus watermarks), a very fine impression with full margins, the only known state, one of fifty impressions, signed in pencil lower right, deckle edges above, below, and right, a few faint handling creases, traces of an old tape mount on the reverse, and pinholes in the four corners, otherwise in excellent condition L. 400x520mm., S. 624x472mm.

One of his most powerful lithographs, The Great Hammer shows Pennell's skillful staging of the machine as a monstrous idol, an awesome metaphor of the industrial age.