The quadrupeds of North America. By John James Audubon, F.R.S., &c. &c. and The Rev. John Bachman, D.D., &c. &c.
Three volumes. New York: Victor Gifford Audubon, 1851–1851–1854. First edition in book form.
Royal octavo in 4s: (6 13/16” x 10 3/16”, 173mm x 258mm).
Vol. I: binder’s blank, π4(–π1) 1–84 94 10–174 184 19–204 214 22–304 314 32–464 474 484, binder’s blank [$1 signed; –91, 181, 211, 311, 471]. 195 leaves, pp. iii–v (title, copyright, introduction) vi–viii (3pp. introduction) 1 2–383 384. With 50 hand-colored lithographed plates.
Vol. II: binder’s blank, π2(–π1) 1–104 114 12–164 174 18–19 204 21–384 39–414 424(–424), binder’s blank [$1 singed; –39, 40, 41, 42]. 168 leaves, pp. [2] (title, copyright) 1 2–334. With 50 hand-colored lithographed plates.
Vol. III: binder’s blank, π2(π2+2π1) 1–444, binder’s blank [$1 singed]. 179 leaves, pp. [6] (half title, blank, title, copyright, duplicate half title, blank) 1 2–348 iii iv–v [1] (blank). With 55 hand-colored lithographed plates.
With 155 hand-colored lithographed plates in toto.
Bound by Waters (& Stevenson?) of Baltimore (their ink-stamp to the verso of the front free end-paper of each volume) in contemporary green morocco with a gilt-and-blind roll border and an amphora gilt supralibros. On the spine, 5 raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, authors and number gilt to the fourth. All edges of the text-block gilt. Plum-coated end-papers.
Sunned at the spines; vol. I re-backed with the original back-strip laid down. Rubbed generally, with some wear to the fore-corners. Fore-edge of the front free end-papers chipped. Occasional foxing throughout. Small tears to the tissue guards. In vol. III, the plates of the lemming, the black tailed deer, the arctic fox, and the Canadian otter lack tissue guards. Lacking half-titles to voll. I and II, but with a duplicate half-title to vol. III. Bookplate of George S. Gibson Jr. to the front pastedown of each volume, and the Gibson arms blind-stamped to the front free end-paper of each volume.
At the age of 58, John James Audubon (1785–1851) — the consummate woodsman and naturalist — embarked on his first journey across the Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains, seeking mammals to illustrate for this ambitious project following his vast and expensive Birds of America (1827–1838, octavo edition 1840–1844). Audubon failed to obtain government funding for what he called his “Great Western Journey.” Undeterred and believing in the scientific value and commercial promise of The Quadrupeds, Audubon decided to finance the expedition himself. He sought collaboration with The Rev. John Bachman (1790–1874), a Lutheran Pastor who had studied quadrupeds from his youth and was recognized as an authority among naturalists in the United States. Bachman was not keen on the trip, and Audubon himself conceded the hardships that it would entail. In a letter to Charles Bonaparte in February of 1843, he wrote: “To render [the Quadrupeds] more complete, I will leave the comforts of my home and beloved family, bound to the Rocky Mountains… I cannot tell how long I may be absent, but look to return loaded up with knowledge, new and abundant specimens on the shot and not from stuffed museums’ moth-eaten remains. I am told that I am too old to undertake such a long and arduous journey, but I reply that having the will, I will no doubt safely bear or even surmount the difficulties.”
Audubon departed from St. Louis in April 1843, traveling up the Missouri River with a group that included trappers, gentleman naturalists, and several Native Americans who had come to the city for trade. En route, Audubon delighted in sharing his work. During one of his impromptu showcases, Edward Harris (a naturalist on the expedition), recounted that one onlooker fled shocked from Audubon’s plate of woodchucks, exclaiming they were surely alive. After traveling some thousand miles, the group arrived on the prairie, a haven of wildlife where elk, deer, bears, wolves, and vast herds of buffalo roamed free, ripe for observation. Upon returning home, however, Audubon’s health began to deteriorate, and he left the illustrations of smaller animals for his son, John Woodhouse Audubon, to complete. Ultimately, just over half of the quadrupeds were illustrated by John James himself, with the remainder completed by John Woodhouse. The backgrounds were finished by his youngest son, Victor Gifford Audubon, who saw the book through the press. It took the Audubon family five years to finalize and publish all 150 plates for the folio edition (The Viviparous Quadrupeds… 1845–1848), which was later supplemented by 6 plates.
As with the Birds, the large-format Viviparous Quadrupeds was limited in circulation because of the cost, with the result that the Audubons issued a royal octavo edition in the years following. This too was issued in parts (Arader has handled a set of the present title in its original parts) beginning in 1849, which contained all 150 of the original images plus 5 of the 6 supplemental, reduced by camera lucida (and in some cases altered to suit the smaller format). The 1851 dates on the first and second volumes suggest that this was not assembled from parts but issued as bound volumes.
George S. Gibson Jr. (1800–1872) was a medical doctor in Baltimore. He was trained in Holland and England, and served as treasurer for the medical and chirurgical (surgical) faculty of UMD 1836–1838. Lot 128 at Christie’s New York 28 November 2011.
Nissen, ZBI 163; Sabin 2368.
Catalogued by G.R. Murdock.
Item #GRM0017
Price: $12,000