PBA Galleries

3 volumes. [2], iv, 3-333; xviii, 9-290; iv, 17-392 pp. Illustrated with 120 hand-colored lithograph plates. (Royal octavo) 26.5x16 cm (10½x7") bound in period decoratively paneled brown morocco, spines with raised bands, lettered in gilt, all edges gilt.

Magnificent series of hand-colored portraits of the Indians of North America. Reprinted from the 1836-38-44 folio edition, which was described by Field as "one of the most costly and important ever published on the American Indians. The plates are accurate portraits of celebrated chiefs, or of characteristic individuals of the race, and are colored with care, to faithfully represent their features and costumes." Howes notes the plates as "mostly the work of King," and declares that they are "the most colorful portraits of Indians ever executed... The original oil paintings from which the plates were copied were all destroyed in the 1865 Smithsonian fire." Originally issued in 20 parts over eight years, with various Philadelphia publishers, Biddle being the primary one.