The Cabinet of Natural History and American Rural Sports. Complete set of three uniformly-bound volumes.: one of the first color-plate books produced in America

"In the first issue of the short-lived but gorgeously produced 1830s magazine...the editors wrote that 'a more intimate knowledge' of natural history "will greatly increase the comfort and enjoyment of the whole human race." This belief is perhaps not so different from the contemporary emphasis on environmental education and experiences in the outdoors." (Christopher Cokinos, Hope Is the Thing With Feathers.)>

An important combination of American printing and art, this is one of the first color-plate books to be produced in America, and helped establish lithography as "the" process of illustration. Issued separately, the first volume was the result of the brothers John and Thomas Doughty. Partway through the second volume, however, Thomas moved to Boston to pursue a career as a painter. He would become the first artist to paint in the Hudson River School style and was a major influence in nineteenth century American Art. John Doughty continued with the end of the second volume and half of the third volume before the project failed, probably in part because the quality of the prints declines after the departure of Thomas.>

References to this seminal work are found in the usual books-about-books lists and catalogs, but also a variety of sporting books and art books. Biscotti. Six Centuries of Foxhunting, p. 117; Gee. Early American Sporting Books, pp. 48-49; Henderson, Early American Sport, p.37; Howat, The Hudson River and Its Painters, p. 31.;
Howes. U.S.iana D433; Reese. Nineteenth Century American Color Plate Books, #12.>

Very good condition overall. Uniformly bound with leather spines and corners over cloth boards, five raised bands to spine, lettered in gilt on spines; bookplates to endpapers. Title pages foxed, some pages browned or foxed, some of the engraved plates heavily foxed. The color plates exhibit no or only light foxing, and are generally excellent. Volumes 1 & 2 measure 11-1/4" x 9-1/4", volume 3 measures 12-1/2" x 10". Although the first two volumes are presumably trimmed, the margins are still respectable, and these volumes measure slightly larger than other bound copies we have seen.>

54 colored plates plus 3 engraved plate illustrations, 2 engraved frontis portraits, 3 engraved title pages. >

Collation: >

Volume 1: frontis engraving, engraved title page, color plates 1-11, 15, 12-14, 16-24, engraved plate after page 126. The misplacement of plate 15 is due to pages 169-72 being misbound after page 132.>

Volume 2: frontis engraving, engraved title page, color plates 1-4, 6-24. Plate 5 is not colored; plate 11 is labelled "12" and plate 13 is labelled "14.">

Volume 3: engraved title page, color plates 1-6, 8. Plate 7 is not colored, plate 2 is labelled "1." Front and rear covers of all four issues bound in at rear.>

It appears that Volume 3 was discovered incomplete. There is a pencil note on the front endpaper which says that several illustrations are missing. The rear endpaper has a catalog clipping tipped in, an ink note of purchase date, and an ink note saying "Bound by Alfred Smith and Co., Philadelphia 1915," along with a few pencil notes of prices. >