Beschreibung:

AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES and Rev . JOHN BACHMAN. The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. New York: J.J. Audubon 1845-46-48-51-1854. 6 vols., comprising plates: 3 vols., atlas folio, 694 x 542mm. (27 3/8 x 21 3/8in.) and text: 3 vols., royal 8vo, 277 x 187mm. (10 7/8 x 7 3/8in.), uniformly bound in early twentieth-century tan half morocco gilt and buckram sides, extremities rubbed. Plate 1 creased, plate 46 with pin foxing, plate 56 with a brown streak in upper blank margin, plate 63 with a small spot, plate 101 with a partial crease and a single half-inch tear. A few slightly darkened sheets, occasional minor faint foxing. Titles of vols. 2 and 3 foxed, contents of vol. 3 creased and with two minor tape repairs. FIRST EDITION, atlas with 150 finely colored lithographed plates after John James and John Woodhouse Audubon the backgrounds after Victor Audubon, by J.T. Bowen, 3 lithographed title-pages and 3 pages of letterpress contents, plate CXXIX misnumbered CXXIV; text with 6 colored lithographed plates after J.W. Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock (nos. 124, 151-155); half-titles in vols. 1 and 3. Despite the minor faults noted above, A FINE, LARGE COPY WITH BRILLIANT COLORING, larger than the Evans copy (sold, Christie's New York, 29 October 1993, lot 17). The Viviparous Quadrupeds is also found with the plates bound up in two volumes, often without the title for vol. 3. These two-volume sets are a later issue and their coloring is less vivid than in the three-volume issue, as here. Bennett, p. 5; McGill/Wood, p. 208; Nissen ZBI 162; Sabin 2367. Provenance : Ruth and Robert Work, presentation bookplate from "Barrington Women's Club 1955" in text volumes. (6)