Lot 107
  • 107

Milbert, Jacques-Gérard

Estimate
15,000 - 18,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Itinéraire Pittoresque du Fleuve Hudson et des parties latérales de l'Amérique du Nord. Paris: Henri Gaugain et Cie, 1828–1829
  • paper, ink, vellum
2 volumes 4to text and folio atlas (13 1/8 x 10 in.; 333 x 254 mm and 13 x 318 3/8 in.; 328 x 467 mm). Atlas with pictorial lithographed front wrapper after Smith by Georges bound as a title page, 54 fine uncolored lithographed views after Milbert by Deroy, V. Adam, Villeneuve, and others, all the plates on india paper mounted, handcolored full-sheet lithographed map after H. Toquet, text volumes with half-titles; some foxing and browning to text, chiefly marginal, plate 52 creased and so printed. Expertly bound to style in dark blue half straight-grained morocco over contemporary marbled boards, the smooth spines gilt-ruled into six compartments, early speckled edges.

Literature

Brunet III, 1713; Deak p. 299; Howes M592; Monaghan 1072; Ray, French 110; Sabin 48916; Constance D. Sherman, "A French Explorer in the Hudson Valley" in the New York Historical Society Quarterly 45 (July 1961), pp.255-280; Stokes, Iconography of New York p.569; cf. Streeter Sale 910

Catalogue Note

First edition of an outstanding series of American views. Milbert spent seven years in the United States, beginning in 1815, under the auspices of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle au Jardin du Roi in Paris. In addition to the more than 8,000 specimens of American flora and fauna that he collected (including a live American buffalo), Milbert brought back to France the sketches from which the present lithographed views were made. Although most of the plates depict scenes in New York State—including New York City, West Point, Albany, Troy, Saratoga Springs, and Niagara Falls—fine views are included as well of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

"As an artist, Milbert loved to paint American landscapes, particularly those which showed the Hudson, 'King of Rivers,' flowing majestically through the mountains … boundless curiosity, plus a contagious enthusiasm and a delightful sense of humor, make the journal as lively a document today as when it was penned a hundred and forty years ago. The pictures of what he saw, as of the time he drew them, constitute a unique and valuable record" (Sherman).