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... by Catlin, George - 1848

London: Henry Bohn, 1848. Two volumes. viii,264; viii,266pp., plus 313 handcolored etchings on 180 plates, including three maps (one folding). Large, thick octavo. Contemporary three-quarter red morocco and marbled boards, spines gilt. Extremities lightly worn. Bookplates on front pastedown. Minor scattered foxing and soiling, some occasional light offsetting. Very good. A later edition of Catlin's LETTERS AND NOTES..., styled "7th edition" on the titlepage. The London publisher, Henry Bohn, took over publication in 1845 and altered the title to that given above. What is important in this copy is the colored plates. According to Sabin (who knew Bohn well, personally, and was certainly in a position to know), "Mr. Bohn had twelve or more copies colored after the fancy of the artist who did the work, but tolerably well. Such copies are worth $60 a set." In fact, a set brought $24 at the Field sale in 1875. By comparison, a copy of CATLIN'S NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN PORTFOLIO sold for only $1.50. Howes states that various editions published by Bohn appear with the plates colored. It would seem likely that Sabin is correct and only about a dozen were produced. The plates themselves are clean, fresh, and very handsomely colored. It is impossible to identify the colorist, but it was quite possibly was one of the Catlin copyists working in England at that time, John Cullum or Rosa Bonhuer. The plates illustrate scenes of Indian life in the West or are portraits of individual Indians. The book was and is one of the most widely circulated works on American Indians written in the 19th century, and the illustrations so beautifully presented herein remain the most important body of illustrative material for wild Indian life in the American West. FIELD 260. HOWES C241. McCRACKEN 8K. CLARK III:141. SABIN 11537. STREETER SALE 4277 (1866 ed). PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 685. WAGNER-CAMP 84:12.