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Text volume plus portfolio of prints. Text: Preface by S. Dillon Ripley. Biography of Grayson by Lois Chambers Stone. Bird biographies and field notes on the plates by Andrew Jackson Grayson. (4to). Portfolio: 156 color bird portraits + 4 letterpress leaves. (Folio), 65.5x50 cm, (25x19"), loose as issued. Together, 2 volumes, both bound in full tan linen with gilt-lettered leather labels. Text volume with linen slipcase, portfolio volume housed in linen dropback box. First Edition. No. 157 of 425 sets.

Original prospectus laid in. "Andrew Jackson Grayson came to San Francisco just before the Gold Rush, was inspired to paint by James John Audubon's Birds of America. He vowed to extend Audubon's visual record west, to include the Pacific Slope of California and Mexico. Bequeathed to the University of California in 1879 by Grayson's widow, his paintings became an important holding in The Bancroft Library, but remained largely unknown to the public...The publication of this long-overlooked masterwork has now assured Grayson of a significant place in the history of American ornithology. As a result of the Arion edition, an exhibition of Grayson's original watercolors and related material, including the book and portfolio, was mounted in 1987 at the Oakland Museum and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C." (Arion #20).