The Birds of Eastern North America; with original descriptions of all the species which occur east of the Mississippi River, between the Arctic Circle and the Gulf of Mexico, with full notes on habitats, etc.
Boston: Alden & Hazen, 1882. 30.5x26cm: iv, 532pp. Publisher’s three-quarter brown morocco over large-grained cloth. Gilt titling and ruling to front cover. Gilt titling to spine in two of the six compartments, with the other four having a stamped decorative accent. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Thirty-two hand-colored lithograph plates, including the frontispiece, all with tissue guards. Collated and complete, but see note below. Leather scuffed along edges, especially at corners. Cloth and gilt edges rubbed. Contents lightly toned, with scattered foxing to tissue guards and a few plates. Previous owner’s signature on front free endpaper. Better Than Very Good. This edition not in Nissen IVB, but found in the author’s bibliography by Charles Foster Batchelder (1951: Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, Vol. 2, Issue 7).
A reprint of Maynard’s self-published Revised Edition of 1881, and the only version of this book published by an outside publisher and not Maynard himself. A later, much more extensive edition with over 700 pages and additional plates was self-published in 1896. This work expands upon ornithologist C. J. Maynard’s earlier work Birds of Florida, though “an entirely new edition of plates has been prepared for this book [1881], all of which have been drawn on stone by the author” (from the preface). Enhanced by magnificent and expertly accomplished hand-coloring.
A beautiful copy for all our fellow ornithology lovers!
NB: Collated and complete. However, the plates are not in numerical order, and while there is no plate labeled “Plate III”, the plate opposite page 102 is unnumbered.
Price: $950.00
Item #10608