The scene likely a tributary of the Kentucky River surviving in as painted condition aside from less than a quarter inch of mat burn at the upper margin. No longer visible with acid free mat, spacers between the work and the UV filtering glass. Reframed in a gold leaf frame of the period. The work appears to have been originally laid on a paperboard which shows not a trace of toning in over a century of companionship. Sawyier was academically trained with the knowledge of wheat paste adhesive not toning his work from the reverse. Many of his mature works in watercolor are so mounted. A Sawyier watercolor seldom survives with the palette free of having been sun struck . This well executed example an exception.