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Lot 697
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. 2 Volumes. Volume I is Ninth Edition, Henry G. Bohn, London, 1857; Volume II is Tenth Edition, Henry G. Bohn, London, 1866, both volumes 9 7/8 x 6 5/8 inches. With hand-colored frontis and 313 hand-colored etchings on 180 plates, including 3 maps (1 folding). Bound in red half morocco over marbled paper covered boards; spines in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in gilt in the second and third compartments; compartments one, four, and six are decorated with head-and-shoulders busts of Indians, and compartment five with a tomahawk and a peace-pipe. Gilt-edged Deluxe issue: one of approximately twelve copies with the plates printed in outline and entirely hand colored.
Catlin (1796-1872) was an artist and author who traveled to the American West five times in the 1830s to paint the Plains Indians and record their way of life in their own territories. He created an Indian Gallery of over 500 paintings and exhibited them in the eastern U.S. and in Europe. His hope that the U.S. Congress would purchase his Indian Gallery and save it for posterity did not come to fruition and unable to afford promoting his Indian Gallery, Catlin sold his copyright to London publisher Henry Bohn, who took over publication in 1845 and altered the title to that given above.
The outstanding feature of the present volumes is the hand-colored plates. Sabin states that "Mr. Bohn had twelve or more copies colored after the fancy of the artist who did the work, but tolerably well." The plates are clean and vibrantly colored. They illustrate members of many different Indian tribes in native dress, at play, at war, and as they went about their daily lives, as well as depictions of the habitats in which they lived. One of the most popular works on American Indians written in the 19th century.
Estimated Value $10,000 - 12,500.
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