American Ornithology; or, The Natural History of the Birds of the United States

London, Paris & New York: Cassell Petter & Galpin [Chatto & Windus], 1877. First Edition thus [from 1808]. Half-Morocco. Fine. A superb 3-volume British edition of this classic American bird book, the "first major scientific work published in the United States" (Burtt and Davis, p. 333), here in its final state (with notes and Life of Wilson by Sir William Jardine) and with the largest number of plates. Demy 8vo (211 x 140mm): cv,[1],408,[8,Cassell catalogue]; vii,[1],495,[1]; vii,[1],540pp, with tissue-guarded engraved portrait frontispiece of Wilson in shooting attire and 103 chromolithographed plates, featuring Lizar's attractive re-engravings of Wilson's originals. Publisher's dark green morocco-backed red cloth, spines richly gilt with hawk vignette, top edge gilt, black coated end papers. Pages and plates virtually pristine (light foxing to opening leaves of each volume; label blacked out on fly leaves). Nissen 996 (Chatto & Windus imprint). Anker 533. Sitwell, p. 155-57. Reese 3 ("the first American work to use color plates to convey scientific information, and the first real combination of text and color illustration produced in the United States.") Anker 533 and 534. Originally published in nine folio volumes with 76 hand-colored engravings between 1808 and 1814 in a subscribed edition of 400 copies, then updated and expanded after Wilson's death by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano. Wilson was almost entirely eclipsed in popular awareness by John James Audubon and his Birds of America (1827-1838), but Wilson, not Audubon, is the true founder of American ornithology, and this work is the foundational account of North American birds. This edition reprints Wilson's original text and Bonaparte's "continuation" and includes Jardine's later notes (see Zimmer I, pp. 64-65), which Neville Wood (quoted in Allibone III, 2765-2766) calls "by far the best edition." Matching entirely in format, binding, pages, and plates the Chatto & Windus edition of 1876 (see Sitwell). Indeed sets have appeared in commerce with the Chatto & Windus imprint to Volume I and that of Cassell Peter & Galpin to Volumes II and III. The publishing firm Cassell was founded in 1848 by John Cassell and taken over by Thomas Dixon Galpin and George William Petter in 1855, when it began trading as Cassell Petter & Galpin. The imprint did not become Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Company until 1878, with the arrival of a new partner, Robert Turner. Petter resigned in 1883, and from 1888 the company was known simply as Cassell & Co. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).