Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$6500.00 + shipping
Description: Pp. viii, 298; 50 splendid hand-colored lithographic plates. Later one-half black morocco leather, spine with 5 raised bands, lettered in gilt on two compartments and decorated with gilt rectangular patterns highlighted with small feathers in the remaining 4 compartments, over green marbled boards with matching green marbled endpapers, lg 8vo (10.75 x 7.5 inches). This is the second edition of John Cassin's beautifully illustrated work on Western birds. The volume features 50 brilliant hand-colored lithographic plates, including many of species discovered after Audubon's Birds and intended to supplement that great work. "In the spring of 1845, John James Audubon, North America's most widely-celebrated naturalist and best-known painter of birds, met for the first and last time the inconspicuous academic who would eventually succeed him as the dean of American ornithologists - John Cassin" (Peck, I-3). "Probably no other ornithologist of his day had such a knowledge of the literature of the subject" (DAB). Cassin's Birds of California is among the most significant and earliest books "representative of the era of western expansion of American ornithology" (Ellis and Mengel). The work was originally published in ten parts between 1852 and 1855 and contains full-page plates and detailed descriptions of 50 species of birds "not given by former American authors." It also includes a "general synopsis of North American Ornithology," in which Cassin compares American birds with species from elsewhere around the world. "No American had ever offered such a comprehensive analysis" (Peck, I-7). The plates for Cassin were made from drawings by G.G. White and executed along the same lines as Audubon's, both the lithographer, William Hitchcock, and the printer, J.T. Bowen, having worked extensively on Audubon's Birds and on the Quadrupeds as well. This description was modified after a similar description used in the past by Bauman Rare Books. For bibliographic notes see also Anker 92, Zimmer, 124, Nissen 173 and Sabin 11369. Small bookplate on the front endpaper labeled: Ex KEK libris. No other ownership marks and no signs of use. A hint of soiling in the outer margins of two plates with no effect to the color images; a truly spectacular copy in fine condition in a fine binding.
Seller: Natural History Books, Iowa City, IA, U.S.A.
Price: US$6800.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo., (10 2/8 x 7 inches). Hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece and 49 plates by William E. Hitchcock, some after George G. White, all printed and hand-colored by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia (one gathering loose). Contemporary full brown morocco, decorated in blind panels, lettered in gilt (a bit rubbed). Provenance: pencilled binder's note at head of title-page; with the bookplate of John M. Levinson, Physician and Adventurer, on the front paste-down. First edition in book form, first published in parts between July 1853 and June 1855 (with a title-page issued in 1856), was intended to complement the octavo edition of Audubon's celebrated work "The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories". The annexation of Texas and the addition of California and New Mexico to the United States had led to increased exploration and research in the South West. "At first the Audubons were receptive.however, Cassin wanted shared credit on the title page and a free hand in correcting the errors of nomenclature of the elder Audubon, a touchy point with the sons. In the end, Cassin went on his own, although clearly following the Audubon format and also using J.T. Bowen as lithographer" (Reese). Anker 92; Ayer, p. 124; Nissen ZBI 173; Wood, p. 280; Zimmer I:124.
Seller: Arader Galleries - AraderNYC, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$6800.00 + shipping
Description: Tall 8vo., (10 x 7 inches). Frontispiece portrait of the author, hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece and 49 plates by William E. Hitchcock, some after George G. White, all printed and hand-colored by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia. Original purple cloth, gilt (worn with loss at the extremities, pale marginal stain to preliminaries, ownership signature erased from front free endpaper). First edition in book form, first published in parts between July 1853 and June 1855 (with a title-page issued in 1856), was intended to complement the octavo edition of Audubon's celebrated work "The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories". The annexation of Texas and the addition of California and New Mexico to the United States had led to increased exploration and research in the South West. "At first the Audubons were receptive.however, Cassin wanted shared credit on the title page and a free hand in correcting the errors of nomenclature of the elder Audubon, a touchy point with the sons. In the end, Cassin went on his own, although clearly following the Audubon format and also using J.T. Bowen as lithographer" (Reese). Anker 92; Ayer, p. 124; Nissen ZBI 173; Wood, p. 280; Zimmer I:124.
Seller: Arader Galleries - AraderNYC, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$6800.00 + shipping
Description: Tall 8vo., (10 4/8 x 7 inches). Hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece and 49 plates by William E. Hitchcock, some after George G. White, all printed and hand-colored by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia. Original purple cloth, gilt (rebacked to style). Provenance: with a near contemporary gift inscription on the front free endpaper to Florence Delphia Hall from her father dated 1881; with the blind library stamp of Theodore J. Hoover of San Francisco and London on the title-page. First edition in book form, first published in parts between July 1853 and June 1855 (with a title-page issued in 1856), was intended to complement the octavo edition of Audubon's celebrated work "The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories". The annexation of Texas and the addition of California and New Mexico to the United States had led to increased exploration and research in the South West. "At first the Audubons were receptive.however, Cassin wanted shared credit on the title page and a free hand in correcting the errors of nomenclature of the elder Audubon, a touchy point with the sons. In the end, Cassin went on his own, although clearly following the Audubon format and also using J.T. Bowen as lithographer" (Reese). Anker 92; Ayer, p. 124; Nissen ZBI 173; Wood, p. 280; Zimmer I:124. Catalogued by Kate Hunter
Seller: Arader Galleries - AraderNYC, New York, NY, U.S.A.