Travels in the Interior Parts of North America

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26.05.2022 10:00UTC -04:00
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CHRISTIE'S
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ID 753060
Lot 187 | Travels in the Interior Parts of North America
Travels in the Interior Parts of North AmericaPrince Maximilian and Karl Bodmer, 1843.MAXIMILIAN, Alexander Philipp (1782-1867) and BODMER. Karl (1809-1893). Travels in the Interior of North America. London: Ackermann & Co. [and Coblenz: J. Holscher. Paris: Bertrand], 1843. The first English edition of the most important illustrated book on the American West. It recounts the travels of the German Prince Maximilian of Wied on the upper Missouri River in 1832-34, accompanied by the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer. They went "as far upstream as the American Fur Company post of Fort Mackenzie in present-day Montana, and spending the winter at Fort Clark, near the Mandan Indian villages. During this prolonged stay, he and Bodmer had ample opportunity to observe the Indian tribes of the Upper Missouri...Bodmer's atlas, made up of smaller vignettes and larger tableaus of scenes from the trip, is justly famous for its extraordinary depictions of the Indians of the Upper Missouri. These are, in fact, the best images of American Indians executed before the era of photography ... No other images of American Indians even come close to these in accuracy, detail, and execution, faithfully transferred from the original [watercolors] to the aquatint plates under Bodmer's close supervision of the printing of the atlas" (Best of the West). The famous portrait of Pehriska Ruhpa is present here in its first state, before dating and misnumbered as tab. 38. The printing, by Bougeard, of the original plates was of such high quality that the English publisher contracted to obtain a limited run of French-produced, first printing plates, rather than reprint them in England. The captions for each plate are in German, English, and French. Best of the West 73; Field 1036; Howes M443a; Jones 1076; Sabin 47017; Streeter sale 1809; Wagner-Camp 76:3. Two volumes, quarto text (312 x 242mm) and broadsheet folio atlas (560 x 416mm). Text: Half-title. Wood-engraved illustrations, large engraved route map hand-colored in outline (map with closed stub tear into image and minor foxing). Modern green morocco, tan morocco lettering piece, all edges gilt (a few spots to endleaves). Atlas: Lithographed plate list plus 81 aquatint and engraved plates, all with artist's blindstamp, comprising 33 "vignettes" and 48 larger "tableaux" images (lacking lithographed title-page, tab. 2 lightly freckled, tab. 31 with small stain in sky, tab. 36 toned and with a corner chip, a couple of plates with faint residue at top margin possibly from old tissue guards). Modern half morocco, uniform to the text volume (hinges cracking, a few small scuffs). Provenance: King's Inns Library, Dublin (text vols. with stamps on verso of title and at the foot of the last text page).
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