Beschreibung:

Künstler-Album. Amerika in Miniatur. Original Ansichten von Städten und Landschaften in Amerika. Gezeichnet von Rugendas, Kurz etc. gest. von G.M. Kurz und colorirt von K. Strickler . [N.p., n.d, but circa 1840]. A fine collection of superbly coloured views of Mexico, Brazil, the United States and Canada, after Johann Moritz Rugendas William Henry Bartlett and others. The format suggests these engravings were assembled and hand-coloured to order, perhaps for a German-speaking traveller to commemorate a tour of the Americas. The views include eleven of the United States, four of Canada, fifteen of Mexico and one of Brazil. Five of the plates have been cut to the edge of the image and mounted, the remainder are here bound in full sheet form. Oblong folio (260 x 330mm). Manuscript title in red and black within triple fillet ruled border on dark grey-toned paper, 31 steel-engraved plates by Georg Michael Kurz after Rugendas, R.F. Kurz, W.H. Bartlett and others, all with fine contemporary hand-colouring, each image with thick black ink-ruled border, grey bodycolour surround and with gilt manuscript titling in German , five plates cut to the edge of the image and mounted to size (some scuffing or rubbing to surrounds, small pieces of the facing tissue guards occasionally adhering to ink-ruled borders). Modern black morocco incorporating large sections of the original binding, upper cover with wide gilt decorative border surrounding the centrally-placed word 'Album' also in gilt, the lower cover with similar border in blind, the spine gilt in six compartments, lettered 'Ansichten von Amerika' in the third, the others decorated in gilt, yellow endpapers, gilt edges.