Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California - photo 1
Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California - photo 2
Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California - photo 3
Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California - photo 4

Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California

Lot 12
16.06.2023 16:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 88 200
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
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Archive
ID 965132
Lot 12 | Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California
Estimate value
$ 60 000 – 80 000
Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California
J.W. Audubon, 1852
AUDUBON, John Woodhouse (1812-1862). Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California. New York: J.W. Audubon, 1852.

Very rare first edition of an extraordinary color-plate Gold Rush "might-have-been." "In 1849 John Woodhouse Audubon joined the gold rush, travelling to California across Texas and northern Mexico. On his return, he planned an ambitious plate book of forty plates in ten parts, illustrating scenes from his trip and in the mines. Despite the tremendous national interest in the gold rush, he was unable to generate enough subscriptions to justify the publication, and so packaged the ... letterpress text, with the plates of the projected first part, as a complete book" (Stamped with a National Character). Audubon account ledgers for 1852 confirm the sale of only two copies (Kurutz).

The four color plates are: "Fourth of July Camp," "Night Watch," "Cañon, Jesus Maria," (called by the author, "the most magnificent mountain-pass I have ever seen") and "Jesus Maria." This is one of only three copies to appear in the auction records for the past 100 years, according to RBH. Bennett, p.5; Graff 111; Howes A-390 ("dd" = superlatively rare, almost unobtainable); Kurutz 21; Stamped with a National Character 41; Streeter sale 3166-3167 (two tinted plates only); Wagner-Camp 208.

Folio (430 x 317mm). With four hand-colored lithographed plates, drawn by J.W. Audubon, on stone by E. Gildemeister, printed by Nagel & Weingaertner (text with some foxing/toning and a few marginal tears, last page browned, tiny repaired tear to left margin of each plate, a little buckling to plates near inner margin). Modern calf; morocco-backed solander box. Provenance: John Forster (armorial bookplate on verso of title-page) – James Strohm Copley, 1916-1973 (bookplate; his sale, Sotheby's New York, 5 October 2010, lot 780).Audubon, J.W.
Mexico
California
Place of origin:South America
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
20 Rockefeller Plaza
10020 New York
USA
Preview
16.06.2023
Phone +1 212 636 2000
Fax +1 212 636 4930
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