From 1888-1896, Sun & Shade was published by the The Photo-Gravure Company of New York by Ernest Edwards. The publication, according to the volume “Imagining Paradise”, “grew from less than fifty subscribers to a monthly edition of four thousand copies” in its first year. “With emphasis on quality rather than quantity, the magazine transformed itself from its original concept of a “Photographic Record of Events” to an “Artistic Periodical”, and would feature many fine photogravure plates, mainly from photographs but also artwork.

This example of the cover, which has become separated from its letterpress and plates, is believed to be a very early example of the first issue, as it shows a price of sixty cents engraved at the lower left margin. Another example seen by this archive shows the same first issue cover, but printed in a deep orange rather than red ink, and engraved at bottom left to right: Monthly Thirty Cents  Copyright 1888 By the Photo-Gravure Co. N.Y.  Yearly Three Dollars.