(PORTRAITURE.) C.E. Lester, editor; after portraits by Brady. The Gallery of Illustrious Americans. 12 portrait plates lithographed by d'Avignon after photographs by Brady, on printed mounts as issued, each with Brady's embossed stamp in the lower margin of the mount. [1], 26, [1] leaves. Folio, 21 x 15 inches, publisher's gilt pictorial cloth, worn; foxing to plates, mostly limited to the mounts, first 4 and last 3 leaves detached from binding with edge wear; with half-title reading "The Gift Book of the Republic," bearing an 1851 gift inscription by the editor to Dr. Bailey of Spencertown, NY. New York: Brady, d'Avignon, and Lester, 1850
This project was financed by the young Mathew Brady as a means of bringing his photographic craft to the attention of a larger audience. He paid $100 to his engraver d'Avignon per lithograph. The result was a critical and artistic success, though not a financial one. The illustrious Americans represented here are: Zachary Taylor, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Silas Wright, Henry Clay, John C. Frémont, John J. Audubon, William H. Prescott, Winfield Scott, Millard Fillmore, William E. Channing, and Lewis Cass. "Its portraits are among the best surviving ones of the time"--Taft, Photography and the American Scene, page 60. Panzer, Brady, pages 62-65.
