Author: McKENNEY, Thomas L. and HALL, James [HAND-COLORED PLATES]
Title: History of the Indian Tribes of North America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs Embellished with Portraits from the Indian Gallery in the Department of War, at Washington
Description: Philadelphia, Frederick W. Greenbough, 1838. First Edition. Hardcover. The first volume of this magnificent three-volume set. Folio (14-3/4" x 21") bound in contemporary half red morocco leather with matching corners and marbled boards, gilt-decorated spine with six raised bands and matching black morocco spine labels. Illustrated with 48 beautiful hand-colored lithographs of Native Americans based on original oil portraits painted from life in the studio of Charles Bird King, to whom McKenney brought many of the subjects. The rest were copied from watercolors executed in the field by a young frontier artist named James Otto Lewis. The finished portraits were housed in the Smithsonian where all but four were destroyed in a fire in 1865. Their appearance here is not only the best but in many cases the only likenesses of many of the most prominent Indian leaders of the nineteenth century. Bennett, p. 79; BAL 6934; Field 992; Howes M129: "The most colorful portraits of Indians ever executed"; Reese 24: "the grandest color plate book issued in the United States up to the time of its publication, and one of the most important of the century"; Sabin 43410a. Bookplate of Samuel Spaight Reeves on the front pastedown. Some rubbing to the binding; plates clean and bright. About Fine .

Keywords: Indians, 19th Century, Color Plate Books, Americana, Exploration, Color Plate Books High Spots Native Americans Illustrated Books Western Americana


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