Auction details
10:00 AM PT - Dec 10th, 2008
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CATLIN, George. Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians with letters and notes written during eight years of travel and adventure among the wildest and most remarkable tribes now existing. London: J. E. Adlard for Henry G. Bohn, 1866. 2 volumes, 8vo (240 x 150 mm). 313 hand-colored etchings on 180 plates, including 3 maps. Publisher's red half morocco over marbled paper boards, a.e.g. Condition: upper outer corner of plate 105 torn away, clean tears to plates 151 and 179 in vol. ii; vol. ii front cover detached rare deluxe issue: one of approximately twelve copies with the plates skillfully hand-colored by the publisher. Easily the most beautiful and rarest edition of Catlin's Illustrations of the Manners (alternatively titled Letters and Notes). The book was widely-circulated and published in numerous editions in the 19th century. This is styled the "10th edition" on the title page and was issued by Henry Bohn, who assumed publication of the work in 1845. According to Sabin, who knew the publisher personally, "Mr. Bohn had twelve or more copies colored after the fancy of the artist who did the work, but tolerably well." More recent scholarship by William Reese reveals that Bohn offered colored sets of this edition at the price of 10 guineas. That high price was the same as the first Bohn edition of Catlin's monumental North American Indian Portfolio. The colorist of these deluxe copies is believed to have possibly been John Cullum or Rosa Bonheur, both working for Catlin in England at the time. The set is the first edition of the work issued entirely with color plates. Clark III:141; Field 260; Howes C241; McCracken 8K; Pilling 685; Sabin 11537; Streeter Sale 4277; Wagner-Camp 84.ImagesClick on thumbnails to see larger images: 
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