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Author: Doughty, John & Thomas
Title: The Cabinet of Natural History and American Rural Sports
Place Published: Philadelphia
Publisher:J. & T. Doughty
Date Published: 1830; 1832
Description:

Vols. I & II (of eventually 3, as usual). vii, [1], 298, [2]; vii, [1], 292, [2] pp. Each volume with copper-engraved frontispieces and title-pages. 47 (of 48) additional full-page plates, most lithographed but a few engraved in copper, all but one of them hand-colored. (4to) 28.5x23 cm (11¼x9"), period green half morocco and marbled boards, spines ruled and lettered in gilt, morocco lettering pieces. First Edition.

First edition of the first American sporting book with colored plates. Originally issued in monthly parts, then bound in book form. The third volume, of which only parts 1-4 were produced, is generally lacking from most sets, and in fact is called by Bennett "perhaps the most difficult of all American sport volumes to find." He also remarks that "Artistically, Vol. I is much the most important, for it contains the original plates by Thos. Doughty, famous painter and founding-father of the Hudson River School." Bennett p.35; Gee, Early Am., pp.48-49; Gee, Sportsman's Lib., p.132; Henderson, Early Am. Sport, pp. 37-42; Howes D433; Reese 12. Absent plate in Vol. II is Wild Horses.

Rubbing at extremities and spine panels; occasional foxing and toned leaves some heavier than others, rippling to leaves, a few minor tears to leaves and a few plates, plate 14 in Vol. I detached and laid in; good.