The Birds of North America
New York: Published under the Auspices of The Natural Science Association of America, 1888. First edition. Hardcover. Folio. 182, [8], & cxix plates. Original three-quarter leather over gold-stamped black cloth with gold decorated spine. All gilt edges. Marbled endpapers. Frontispiece photogravure of Studer with his signature in facsimile protected by tissue-guard. Title-page: "The Birds of North America. One hundred and nineteen artistic colored plates representing the different species and varieties drawn and colored from nature including a copius text giving a popular account of their habits and characteristics, based on observations made in the field by the most eminent writers on ornithology, prefaced by a systematic table and index to page, plate and figure, arranged according to the classification adopted by The American Ornithologist's Union." Contains 119 full-page chromolithographic plates in rich vibrant colors showing over 700 North American, Mexican and Central American bird species. The plates were reproduced from drawings by Theodore Jasper and appeared in the original 1878 edition. Each plate accompanied with important descriptive text by various experts of ornithology of bird's habits and characteristics. Heavy age wear and staining on boards and spine. Boards detached, but present. Lacking four inches of upper backstrip. Bottom right corner of frontispiece tissue-gard missing. Water staining to bottom corner area of last half of pages (not affecting text). Binding in poor, interior in good+ to very good condition. Complete with all plates. Plates clean and crisp. fair to vg. Item #30744
Price: $350.00