Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians by George Catlin (1796-1872) - 1841

2 volumes. viii, 264 pages with folding map and a total of 114 plates including frontispiece, plate 23 lacking as called for (plates 12 ad 13 bound into volume2, plates 21 and 22 call for but lacking) with three additional unnumbered plates and plates number 101 1/2 and errata tipped in; viii, 266 pages with 2 maps, 312 plates including plate 210 1/2, but lacking 137, 142, 149, 159 and 247 as called for (plates 160, 27u3, 2754 and 275 called for but lacking). Royal octavo (9 1/4" x 6 1/4") recased in half morocco wit five raised spine bands with gilt lettering to spine over marbled boards. (Wagner-Camp 84:1. Howes C241. Streeter Sale 1805. Wheat Transmississippi 453, 454, 455. Clark III:141. Reese, Best of the West 77) First edition.

The first edition of Catlin's famous book, one of the most important works on American Indians published in the 19th century. Besides the description of his travels throughout the West, the book contains hundreds of line drawings of southern and western Indians, as well as two significant maps showing the locations of Indian tribes. Catlin first went west in 1830, travelling extensively for the next six years accumulating his "Indian Gallery." LETTERS AND NOTES. was published when he brought the exhibition to London.

Condition: Title of volume I with a large pale damp stain, volume II title and first contents leaf with a couple of pencil marks, both titles and most plates with some pale foxing, a few plates and the folding map brittle at edges with tiny chips/tears not affecting images, the folding map cleanly split at one fold, one plate with gutter tear in margin, two plates with chipped corners (one of which is laid down on paper. A fine decorative binding internally very good.
First American edition of Catlin's landmark study of Native Americans. Catlin visited 48 Indian tribes on his tour of the West and executed some 600 paintings. Letters and Notes includes hundreds of engravings which were reduced from the original paintings under Catlin's supervision. The text and illustrations portray diverse aspects of Indian life including village scenes, games, dances, funerals, sudatories, religious ceremonies, buffalo hunting, etc., plus detailed descriptions and depictions of native dress and custom. After taking the entire gallery of his paintings to England, Catlin published his "Letters & Notes," using text from a series of articles he had written for the New York Commercial Advertiser from 1832 to 1837, and illustrating it with line-cut reductions of his original paintings. The folding map is of the Indian Localities in 1833 (a second map in vol. II shows the effects of forced migration after 1840). Howes C24.

Condition:

Recased, in a very attractive binding with gilt lettering to spine and marbled boards, new endpapers; lacking 3 plates, frontispiece and title of volume I with a large pale damp stain, volume II title & first contents leaf with a couple of pencil marks, both titles and most plates with some pale foxing, a few plates and the folding map brittle at edges with tiny chips/tears not affecting images, the folding map cleanly split at one fold and repaired, one plate with gutter tear in margin, two plates with chipped corners (one of which is laid down on paper); a fine decorative binding copy, internally in a very good copy.