(AMERICAN INDIANS.) George Catlin. Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio. 25 hand-colored lithographs, each 22½ x 16½ inches. 20 text pages. Folio, publisher's ½ calf, moderate wear including a light scrape touching the gilt title on front board, tastefully rebacked with most of original backstrip laid down; interleaving paper renewed, plates mounted on tabs; quite minor wear to plates (a few ½-inch chips at the corners, a few closed tears under an inch) and minimal foxing. London: George Catlin, Egyptian Hall, printed by C. & J. Adlard, 1844 First edition, first issue. After creating his most important paintings in the American West in the early 1830s, Catlin had been giving public lectures on his paintings in Great Britain from 1841 onward, sometimes with a group of American Indians in what was essentially one of the first Wild West shows. For this seminal portfolio of large-format lithographs, he selected what he felt were the 25 most popular images from his shows. "In The North American Indian Portfolio, Catlin immortalized those scenes that would become forever associated with life on the Great Plains--buffalo, buffalo hunting, galloping horses, bronco riding, and roping"--Reddin, Wild West Shows, page 43.
Catlin first issued these 25 plates with printed captions bound with the 20 pages of introductory text. Later issues put out by Bohn or Chatto & Windus were variously either mounted on card without captions, or had six extra plates, or had only 16 pages of text. A lovely, well-preserved copy. Abbey Travel 653; Field 258; Howes C243 ("c"); Sabin 11532; Wagner-Camp 105a:1.