Cassin, John:

$7,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA, TEXAS, OREGON, BRITISH AND RUSSIAN AMERICA. INTENDED TO CONTAIN DESCRIPTIONS AND FIGURES OF ALL NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS NOT GIVEN BY FORMER AMERICAN AUTHORS, ... The first edition of Cassin's valuable additions to Audubon, and an important American color plate and ornithological work in its own right. Cassin intended his work to supplement that of Audubon. He had originally suggested to Audubon's sons a plan for extending the octavo edition of Audubon's THE BIRDS OF AMERICA, but difficulty concerning credit on the titlepage sank the scheme, and Cassin proceeded with his own publication. The rare original wrappers included in the present example demonstrate that his original intention had been to issue the work in thirty parts with a total of 150 plates (see wrappers for parts 4 and 5), but by part 6 the work was reduced to its final form of ten parts with fifty plates. Eight of the ten wrappers indicate first issue parts, while the wrappers for the first and fourth parts are identified as "Second Edition." All of the present parts were executed at the same time, however, and the actual second edition was published in 1862.Cassin used the same lithographer as the Audubons, J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia, to produce these beautiful plates of American birds, consisting entirely of western species that Audubon had never observed. Cassin was a trained scientist as well as careful artist and observer, and his work took American ornithology to a ne

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