White horse at center in farm yard – horse facing viewer pulling wagon with man in wagon loading goods handed up by woman. A second horse standing to right dog and farmyard animals.
After Louis Maurer American, 1832-1932 Louis Maurer, a woodcarver who emigrated from Germany in 1851, was employed by Currier & Ives as a designer and lithographer. He worked for the company for eight years, producing scenes of rural life, fire-fighting and sporting events, especially those involving horses. He left Currier & Ives to establish his own lithography firm, Heppenheimer & Maurer, and retired in 1884 to pursue his hobbies of painting, horseback riding and target shooting. Today, one can find several Currier & Ives images that state, “Printed by Heppenheimer & Maurer.” In Preparing for Market, Maurer created a scene of country bounty. The dignified farmer and his wife place carrots, cabbage, apples, onions, eggs, chickens and other surplus produce on their wagon in anticipation of bringing the products into town for trade or sale. Maurer stated that the design was his favorite of all those produced and Currier & Ives published three versions of the print.
