North American Wild Flowers and The Illustrations of North American Pitcherplants

Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1925, 1935. 6 volumes. Folio (36.5 X 30 cm). Original morocco backed fold over linen boxes with metal Smithsonian medallion embedded in the cover. Original cloth ties. Each portfolio contains 80 loose lithograph illustrations of flowers, each alongside a descriptive text leaf as well as a table of contents leaf. Volume one contains a separate booklet with the foreword for the book, a note from the printer and a list of subscribers; the foreword is signed by Mary Walcott. Volume 1 also contains a note from the printer on a smaller, separate booklet. Volume two contains a similar booklet containing an index and an extended list of patrons. Volumes three to five include matching introductory booklets with indexes individual to each volume. The 1925 publication being limited to 500 copies, the first five volumes are number 100. Volume six contains another booklet which provides the foreword and index of the Pitcherplants text; in addition, the volume six booklet is signed by Mary Walcott and dictates that the sixth volume is number 146 of the 500 printed in the 1935 publication. Other than very minor wear to the portfolios, the set is in fine condition. A packet of photo-copied pages detailing the history of the set will be provided in the front of the first volume. The original price for the trade edition was $150.00 and this limited edition was the incredible price of $500.00; being from 1925, only very well off people could ever have hoped to purchase such a set. A 1956 letter circulated to Audubon Members by the National Audobon Society details how the trade edition of North American Wild Flowers experienced a price reduction from its original $150 to a remarkable $50, which ultimately made more accessible the trade edition and inadvertently rarified this limited 1925 publication even further. The Patrons list reads like a Who's Who, including such important names as Du Pont, Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Carnegie, Mellon, etc. The original prospectus tells how much pain staking work went into the production: the half-tone plates were printed on all rag paper, and a special colour printing process was used; this special printing process took place at the publishing establishment of William Edwin Rudge. This truly spectacular production includes many examples of plants Mrs. Walcott sketched on travels to the Canadian Rockies with her famous geologist husband. This set also includes the Pitcherplants which was issued 10 years later and was also limited to 500 copies. Assisted by Walcott, the descriptions were by Edgar T. Wherry and notes on the insects by Franklin Morton Jones. Ralph M. Duenewald provides a note from the printer. 1925