Hoofed Mammals of the World, by Mochi, Ugo and Carter, T. Donald - 1953

Mochi, Ugo, and Carter, T. Donald, Hoofed Mammals of the World, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York: 1953. 40 folia, paginated with Roman numerals, 80 pages, bound in brown cloth stamped with black and gold. This copy has an inscription on the front flyleaf to Margaret and Charles Leonard in which the Italian artist Ugo Mochi cites Theodore Roosevelt's African Game Trails as "inciting" him. Mochi signed the book a second time on the back of the title-page, where he wrote: "This copy is Number 5 of the first 50 copies released to the public Ugo Mochi." The Scribner's Sons first edition "[A]" is just below. On the half-title, Mochi adorned this presentation copy with one of his famous animal silhouettes, a squirrel cut from black paper, with the title: "Illustration done for the 'American' in 1931." This silhouette has come unglued. Mochi cut his remarkable images from a single sheet of black paper resting on a piece of glass, using only a lithographer's knife. T. Donald Carter, the then Assistant Curator for Mammals at the Museum of Natural History in New York, wrote the text-guide to these families of hoofed animals. Spine bumped at the head and tail, slight fabric loss, otherwise a good and unique, limited presentation copy.