North American Sylva; or, a Description of the Forest Trees

1865. MICHAUX, F. Andrew, and NUTTALL, Thomas. The North American Sylva; or, a Description of the Forest Trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia.... Phila.: Rice, Rutter & Co., 1865. 5 Vols. The Michaux volumes contains portrait frontis., 156 handcolored engravings; and the Nuttall volumes contain 121 handcolored lithographs. Modern calf-backed cloth, gilt-ruled raised spine bands, green morocco spine labels, A.e.g. Internally clean, a very good set.. Bennett, p. 76. Meisel III, p. 436 (ref). Sabin 48695. Oak Spring Sylva 20 (ref.). Graustein, Thomas Nuttall (Cambridge, 1967). Taxonomic Literature 5966, 6930. Reese, Stamped with a National Character, 21 (ref.). Savage, André and François André Michaux (Charlottesville, 1986). This publication is the most important work on American trees prior to the 20th century. It is the product of the efforts of two of the greatest naturalists to work in nineteenth-century America, François A. Michaux (1770-1835) and Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859). The beautifully executed plates illustrate leaves and nuts or berries of American trees across the entire continent. "It is no exaggeration to remark that it is the most complete work of its kind, and is a production of unrivalled interest and beauty" - Sabin. This is a reissue of the combined edition of the two works, issued by the Philadelphia publishers Rice, Rutter & Co., successors to Rice and Hart.
Michaux's work was based on his extensive travels in the eastern half of America, and those of his father, from the 1790s on. Both men were friendly with Jefferson and other leading figures, who aided them in their work and travels. His book was first published with a Philadelphia imprint in 1817-19, although actually printed in Paris, where the plates were engraved as well. These plates were executed by the great French flower painters, Redouté and his associate, Bessa. The sheets of the first effort at reprinting were destroyed by fire, but the copper plates were separately stored and survived to be used in this edition, where the work of Michaux fills the first three volumes.
The English-born Nuttall was one of the most intrepid naturalists of his day, traveling extensively in the Mississippi Valley and the Far West in 1820s and 1830s to gather botanical specimens. His work, designed to supplement that of Michaux, covers eastern species missed by the Frenchman and new species Nuttall had gathered in the Midwest and West. His work first appeared in Philadelphia in 1842-49. The publishers, Rice and Hart, then issued it as a combined set with Michaux's work in the uniform configuration found here, originally in 1857, then again in 1859, and then the firm of Rice, Rutter & Co. issued it in 1865, as in the present set. The more up-to-date method of using colored lithographs for the plates was employed in the Nuttall volumes, since the publisher did not have engraved plates in stock, as was the case with the Michaux work.