BODMER, KARL, AND PRINCE MAXIMILIAN ZU WIED-NEUWIED | Voyage Dans l'Intérieur De l'Amérique Du Nord Executé Pendant les Années 1832, 1833 et 1834. Paris: Chez Arthus Bertrand, 1840-43

Property from a Distinguished Private Collection

BODMER, KARL, AND PRINCE MAXIMILIAN ZU WIED-NEUWIED

Voyage Dans l'Intérieur De l'Amérique Du Nord Executé Pendant les Années 1832, 1833 et 1834. Paris: Chez Arthus Bertrand, 1840-43

5 volumes (text: 3 volumes, 8vo [9 3/16 x 5 7/8 in.; 233 x 150mm]; vignette atlas: 1 oblong 4to [10 x 12 1/8 in.; 255 x 308mm]; atlas: 1 oblong folio [17 3/4 x 24 in.; 450 x 610]). French text: Half-titles, 1 lithographic plan, 31 plates of wood-engraved vignettes, 6 wood-engraved illustration; lacking map, scattered foxing, some browning. Vignette atlas: 33 engraved and aquatint plates, all of which feature vibrant hand-coloring; 10 plates supplied, minor foxing and fingersoiling, one or two marginal repairs. Atlas: 48 large engraved aquatint tableau plates, all of which have hand-coloring, all after Bodmer; 16 plates supplied with resulting variance to margins, blind stamps and paper stock, occasional matt burn or offsetting to supplied plates, some largely marginal minor foxing and fingersoiling one or two marginal closed tears repaired. All volumes bound to style, half black morocco over blue marbled paper covered boards, black morocco labels to upper covers of atlas volumes, each ruled, lettered, and decoratively bordered in gilt, spines rounded with gilt rules, text edges stained green; minor rubbing to boards. 

Fully hand-colored. The greatest illustrated American travel narrative and the most important depiction of American Indians in the frontier era.

Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied's famed narrative of his trip to the United States and up the Missouri River in 1833-34, with its magnificent atlas of views and scenes of Indian life by Karl Bodmer, is justly celebrated as the greatest illustrated American travel narrative and the most important depiction of American Indians in the frontier era. The journey took place at a time when the unspoiled, mythic West of the exploration and fur trade era was still vibrant, though on the verge of being shattered by the expansion of the United States. Bodmer's engravings of the Indians encountered on the upper Missouri are among the most iconic and celebrated images of the American West.

REFERENCE:

Abbey 615; Howes M443a."dd"; Pilling, Proof-Sheets 2521; Rader 3652; Sabin 47014; Wagner-Camp 76:1; Goetzmann [et al], Karl Bodmer's America (1984); Ruud, Brandon, Editor, Karl Bodmer's North American Prints, Omaha, 2004