American Ornithology
by
Alexander Wilson & Charles Lucien Bonaparte
Chatto & Windus
1876
This Medium Quarto edition of American Ornithology is perhaps the finest of the smaller editions. Printed on heavy woven stock with fine hand coloring and gum arabic highlights, this edition of American Ornithology is an improvement over the 1932 Whittaker, Treacher and Arnot octavo edition printed in London. The primary advantage of this edition is the larger sheet size, easily accomodating the 5-3/8" x 8-7/8" plate with page dimensions of 8-5/8" x 11-1/8" and providing ample margins for framing. This compares favorably with the crowded 5" x 8-1/16" octavo edition page size which barely (and sometimes not completely) accomodates the full plate. The Chatto & Windus edition also shares the distinction of being the only edition besides the 1871 Porter & Coates 'Philadelphia Edition' to contain all 103 plates by Wilson and Bonaparte, and the only combined edition to contain metal-plate engraved images of all 103 plates (the Bonaparte plates in the Philadelphia edition are hand-colored stone lithographs). The 1832 edition contains only 97 of the total 103 images, Bonaparte's final volume not being published at the time. This was also the final hand-colored edition of Wilson & Bonaparte's work. Later editions all utilize the inferior chromolithographic techniqes, including one 'Chatto & Windus' edition bearing the same title page imprint as the present edition.
Hand Colored* Plates, with gum arabic highlights
8-5/8" x 11-1/16"
Great Crow Blackbird
$100
Crow Blackbird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Lark Finch
$125
Bonaparte #6
Crimson-necked Bullfinch, Arkansas Siskin, American Goldfinch, Lazuli finch,
$125
Fulvous or Cliff Swallow, Burrowing Owl
$100
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Band-tailed Pigeon
$125
Blue Hawk or Hen Harrier
$125
Florida Jay, Northern Three-toed Woodpecker, Young Red-headed Woodpecker
$125
Evening Grosbeak, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, White-winged Crossbill, Indigo Finch
$150
Pallas Dipper, Bohemian Waxwing, Pine Bullfinch
$125
Dusky Grouse
$100
Sharp-tailed Grouse
$100
Spotted Grouse
$100
Cock of the Plains , Spotted Grouse
$100
Young Male Condor
$125
Wilson's Phalarope, Piping Plover, Shinz's Sandpiper
$75
Wilson's Phalarope Young, Hyperborean Phalarope, Long-legged Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover
$75
Florida Gallinule, Yellow-breasted Rail
$85