- 59
Catlin, George
Estimate
70,000 - 100,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- paper
Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio. Hunting Scenes and Amusements of the Rocky Mountains and Prairies of America. London: Geo. Catlin [but Henry Bohn], 1844
Broadsheets (23½ x 18 ½ in.; 595 x 470 mm.), 25 hand-colored lithographed plates after Catlin by Catlin and McGahey, lithographed by Day and Haghe, plates printed before letters, heightened with gum Arabic and mounted on card within ink-framed rules, letterpress title and 9 leaves of text, loose as issued, the plates in a half morocco portfolio, the text in a cloth folder, some light spotting soiling to the plates, a few other imperfections, e.g. plate one with a larger area of soiling, plate 2 with a scratch mark, plate 19 mount torn at corner, the text with a few marginal tears, some repaired.
Broadsheets (23½ x 18 ½ in.; 595 x 470 mm.), 25 hand-colored lithographed plates after Catlin by Catlin and McGahey, lithographed by Day and Haghe, plates printed before letters, heightened with gum Arabic and mounted on card within ink-framed rules, letterpress title and 9 leaves of text, loose as issued, the plates in a half morocco portfolio, the text in a cloth folder, some light spotting soiling to the plates, a few other imperfections, e.g. plate one with a larger area of soiling, plate 2 with a scratch mark, plate 19 mount torn at corner, the text with a few marginal tears, some repaired.
Provenance
Gerald F. Fitzgerald, bookplate in porfolio
Literature
Abbey, Travel 653; Field 258; McCracken 10; Reese issue 1:3; Sabin 11532; Wagner-Camp 105a:1
Catalogue Note
First edition, third (first Bohn) issue, with plates colored by hand and mounted on card. Production of the Portfolio so taxed Catlin’s resources that its publication and distribution was quickly taken over by Henry Bohn. Catlin initially planned to publish a series of thematic portfolios based on paintings from his Indian Gallery including religious rites, dances, and costumes but the set of "Hunting Scenes and Amusements" was the only project that came to fruition.
"These beautiful scenes in Indian life are probably the most truthful ever presented to the public" (Field) and are the result of Catlin's eight years of field research and painting among the native peoples of the American West. In a famous passage from the preface, Catlin describes how the sight of an Indian delegation (probably Pawnee and Oto) passing through Philadelphia led to his resolution to record their vanishing way of life: "The history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worth the lifetime of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life shall prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian."