[Sprague, Isaac]:

$6,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

[FOUR ORIGINAL ORNITHOLOGICAL WATERCOLOR AND PENCIL DRAWINGS BY 19th-CENTURY BOTANICAL AND ZOOLOGICAL ARTIST ISAAC SPRAGUE]. Isaac Sprague (1811-95) was one of the most prolific and well-known illustrators of flora and fauna in 19th-century America. Stafleu & Cowan lists seven composite works, ranging from 1848 to 1891, that included Sprague's illustrations, in addition to his WILD FLOWERS OF AMERICA and FLOWERS OF THE FIELD AND FOREST, both published in 1882. He is particularly remembered for accompanying John James Audubon on his expedition up the Missouri River in 1843, aiding the master painter with ornithological sketches and drawings. The two first met on August 19, 1840, when Audubon admired the young artist's bird drawings. Audubon recorded the meeting in a journal entry: "Saw some very remarkable drawings of birds (far better than any ever made by the immortal Alexr- Wilson) by a young man named Sprague. Truly wonderful drawings, my dearest friends. But this person was out shooting and I did not see him. I however wrote a few lines on several of them the purports of which, I trust, will not displease him." The diary Sprague kept on this trip, in which he gives useful accounts of the settlements and topography of the Missouri River valley, is now held by the Boston Athenaeum. Sprague also illustrated several works by important naturalist Asa Gray, including Gray's BOTANICAL TEXT-BOOK and MANUAL OF BOTANY OF THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES. Gray's wife, the editor of his le

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