American Ornithology; or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States. Illustrated with plates engraved and coloured from original drawings taken from nature

by Alexander Wilson

$17,500 · Offered by Donald A. Heald Rare Books

Expertly bound to style in half red straight-grained morocco over period near-uniform marbled paper-covered boards, the flat spines with title lettered in gilt and a small decorative gilt oval containing the volume number The second full edition of Wilson's work, with plates in their most desirable form, and complete with the three octavo text volumes. Science would lose little if every scrap of pre-Wilsonian writing about United States birds could be annihilated

• Binding: Leather

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