Fine Books & Manuscripts

McKENNEY, Thomas L. (1785–1859). –– [HALL, James (1793–1868)]. History of the Indian Tribes of North America… Philadelphia: [Caxton Press of Sherman & Co. printed for:] D. Rice & Co., 1872. 2 volumes, royal 8vo in fours (273 x 191 mm). 99 full–page plates including chromolithographs and hand–colored lithographs with tissue guards (occasional pale foxing to plates and text mainly at margins) of individual Native American portraits primarily taken after the artist Charles Bird King (the original oil paintings were all destroyed in the 1865 Smithsonian fire) who painted them from life including Billy Bowlegs which is unique only in post–1870 editions. The title lists 100 portraits but in actuality there were 99 portraits as called for in the table of contents (plate No. 51 was skipped). Early half red morocco over pebbled boards, raised bands gilt, compartments with gilt centerpieces and cornerpieces, gilt titling in remainder, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers (dust soiling to covers, front inner hinge cracked in Vol. I). An uncommon later edition (only 3 copies located at auction) OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS OF THE CENTURY and one of the most lavish color plate books issued in the United States up to the time of its publication (see Reese for folio edition, Nineteenth Century American Color Plate Books p. 50). The first octavo edition was originally issued in 3 separate volumes in 1848 by J.T. Bowen; this set is the condensed 2-volume edition with 20 fewer portraits than the original and James Hall’s name has been left off of the title page. This scarce edition is not listed in Howes or Sabin.