Catlin, George

Broadsheets (23 3/8 x 17 in.; 594 x 430 mm). 31 hand-finished tinted lithographed card plates after Catlin by Catlin and McGahey, lithographed by Day and Haghe; lacking title-page and contents leaf as typical with this issue; a few faint marginal spots, but generally very clean. Modern half morocco and old marbled boards.

Bennett 22; Field 258; Howes C243; Reese 'The Production of Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio' issue III:10; Reese 'Stamped with a National Character' 25; Wagner-Camp 105a:2

Broadsheets (23 3/8 x 17 in.; 594 x 430 mm). 31 hand-finished tinted lithographed card plates after Catlin by Catlin and McGahey, lithographed by Day and Haghe; lacking title-page and contents leaf as typical with this issue; a few faint marginal spots, but generally very clean. Modern half morocco and old marbled boards.
The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The condition report is provided to assist you with assessing the condition of the lot and is for guidance only. Any reference to condition in the condition report for the lot does not amount to a full description of condition. The images of the lot form part of the condition report for the lot provided by Sotheby's. Certain images of the lot provided online may not accurately reflect the actual condition of the lot. In particular, the online images may represent colours and shades which are different to the lot's actual colour and shades. The condition report for the lot may make reference to particular imperfections of the lot but you should note that the lot may have other faults not expressly referred to in the condition report for the lot or shown in the online images of the lot. The condition report may not refer to all faults, restoration, alteration or adaptation because Sotheby's is not a professional conservator or restorer but rather the condition report is a statement of opinion genuinely held by Sotheby's. For that reason, Sotheby's condition report is not an alternative to taking your own professional advice regarding the condition of the lot.

Expanded edition, tinted issue, of Catlin's Portfolio, which included an additional six, unnumbered lithographs: two individual portraits, a group portrait of Ojibway people, two dance scenes, and a hunting scene. These supplemental plates were evidently executed in the 1840s when Catlin envisioned a series of several thematic Indian "Portfolios," but they were not printed and issued until Chatto & Windus acquired Henry Bohn's stock of, and copyright for, 'Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio' in the mid-1870s. "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 forty-eight tribes of Native Americans.Only 350 copies of this issue were produced and are increasingly found with modern coloring (as a hand-colored issue was also available originally). The present copy is refreshingly free of such improvements.