Beschreibung:

American Ornithology; or, The Natural History of the Birds of the United States. [Text to vols. VIII and IX by George Ord.
Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1808-1814. 9 volumes. Folio (14 ½ x 10 ¾ inches, 370 x 275 mm). 76 hand-colored engraved plates. Contemporary near-uniform red half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines gilt, uncut. Condition: Plates and adjacent text leaves spotted, browned and offset as usual, a few text leaves torn or creased, plate 64 in vol.VIII with 4-inch tear up into image, plate 73 in vol. IX with split in image, a few other small marginal tears; bindings worn. [WITH:] American Ornithology; or, the natural history of birds inhabiting the United States, not given by Wilson. Philadelphia: William Brown for Carey and Lea, 1825-1833. 4 volumes. Folio (15 _ x 12 inches, 395 x 307 mm). 27 hand-colored engraved plates. Contemporary red half morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spines gilt, uncut. Condition: Browning, foxing and offsetting to text and plates as usual, plates 16 and 22 detached and with small marginal chips and tears, most plates toned; bindings worn, vol. I disbound and with spine perished. Provenance : George Harrison (early stencilled ownership inscriptions, listed as a subscriber). a subscriber's set of first editions of the first great works of american ornithology. Wilson's Ornithology “is the first American work to use color plates to convey scientific information, and it is the first real combination of text and color illustration produced in the United States”. (Reese, Stamped with a National Character ). In the 76 plates in the first work Wilson depicted more than three quarters of the bird species known in America at that time. The plates are from drawings by the author, engraved by Alexander Lawson G. Murray, Benjamin Tanner and J.G. Warnicke. This set a first issue , with the preface of volume one dated September 1, 1808. As the title makes clear, Bonaparte's work was issued as a supplement to Wilson and he described what were believed to be a further 60 species and illustrated them on 27 fine plates. Although the book is printed on larger paper it is interesting to note that Bonaparte was at pains to retain the same style (and the same engraver) as Wilson when it came to the plates, after T. R. Peale, A. Rider, and J. J. Audubon (one figure of plate 4). “the first truly great american ornithology and also the first truly outstanding american color plate book of any type ” ( Bennett ). Anker 533 & 47; Bennett pp. 114 & 16; Coues 1:609; Fine Bird Books pp.114 & 60; Nissen IVB 992 & 116; Reese, Stamped with a National Character 3; Sabin 104597 & 6264; Wood p.630 & 247; Zimmer p.679 & 64.