ELLIOT, Daniel Giraud (1835-1915).
The New and Heretofore Unfigured Species of the Birds of North America.
New York: Published for the Author, [1866]-1869.

Comparable: Christie's, 2009 - $22,500.

PROVENANCE: Wassenaar Zoo: A Dutch Private Library (sale, Bonham's London, 30 May 2018, lot 59).

2 volumes in one, folio (23 1/2 x 19 in.; 59.7 x 48.3 cm). 72 handcolored lithographed plates drawn on stone printed by J. T. Bowen after Elliot, Joseph Wolf, and Edwin Sheppard, 21 wood-engraved illustrations mounted on india paper by W.J. Linton after Edwin Sheppard, one-page subscribers list; closed tears not affecting text of the Cinerous Thrush, short marginal tear neatly on Kennicott's Screech-Owl neatly repaired, small tear in gutter of text to Whitney's Pigmy Owl, a few text leaves slightly creased. Modern half green morocco over cloth boards, spine in six compartments with raised bands (2 lettered gilt); front free endpaper creased, extremities rubbed, long scratch to cloth of lower board.

FIRST EDITION, ONE OF ONLY 200 COPIES PRINTED.

Elliot's only great work exclusively concerned with North American avifauna, and the last of his books to be published in America. When Bowen's firm closed after the completion of this work, Elliot moved to Europe and had the plates for the rest of his books produced in Belgium, as no remaining lithographers in the United States were capable of turning out sumptuous colorplate books birds of this magnitude. Nonetheless, Elliot continued to use a New York imprint. The present work was intended as a continuation of Wilson's Ornithology (1808-1824) and Audubon's Birds of America (1827-1838). It is dedicated to Wilson, "Pioneer of American Ornithology," and the first sentence of the Preface pays homage to both ornithologists: "Since the time of Wilson and Audubon, no work has been published upon American Ornithology, containing life-size representations of the various species that have been discovered since the labors of those great men were finished." Nearly all the species are illustrated life-size, and Joseph Wolf's powerful depiction of the falco islandicus has become one of the icons of ornithological illustration. Elliot was born in New York and later moved to Chicago where he served as Curator of Zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History. In 1883 he became one of the founders of the American Ornithologists' Union and served as its second president between 1890 and 1891. REFERENCES: Anker 129 & p. 79; Bennett; p. 39; Fine Bird Books (1990), p. 95; Nissen IVB 294; Reese, Stamped with a National Character 44; Sabin 22227; Wood p. 331; Zimmer p. 205.