Dec 05, 2017 - Sale 2464

Sale 2464 - Lot 350

Price Realized: $ 8,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
WILSON, ALEXANDER. American Ornithology; or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States. Title-page and 76 engraved plates with original hand-color, many heightened with gum arabic. Plate volume only. Folio, 14 1/2x11 1/2 inches, worn half calf disbound; plates clean with the occasional small stain, plate 46 with minor chipping along fore-edge, exceptionally bright colors. Sold as a complete collection of plates or a fine candidate for binding. New York and Philadelphia: Collins & Co., and Harrison Hall, 1829
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Wilson's pioneering work: the first bird book with colored plates imagined, studied, prepared and produced domestically in America. Re-issued in 1828-29 by George Ord "with the plates coloured better" (Sitwell). "The first truly great American ornithology and also the first truly outstanding American color plate book of any type; absolutely basic as a collector's item" (Bennett). Fine Bird Books 155; Bennett 114; Reese 3.