Lewis, James Otto

ILLUSTRATION: 3 letterpress advertisement leaves, 69 (of 72) hand-colored lithographed plates after Lewis by Lehman & Duval.

Folio (17 1/8 x 11 1/8 in.; 435 x 283 mm).  BINDING: Expertly bound to style in dark purple half morocco over period purple cloth covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, ruled in gilt on either side of each band, lettered in second compartment.



Occasional spot to title, spotting to tissue guards, very occasional spot to plate, lacking plates 66, 68 and 70. Generally very clean—unusually good copy of this book.

Bennett p.68; Field 936; Howes L315; Reese, Stamped With A National Character 23; Sabin 40812

FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT A COLLECTION OF PORTRAITS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. The Aboriginal Portfolio was published in Philadelphia by lithographers George Lehman and Peter S. Duval. It was issued in ten parts, with each part containing eight plates; however, due to a loss of subscribers, very few of the last few parts were issued, and sets with the full complement of a frontispiece/title-leaf and eighty plates are virtually never found: far scarcer than similar works such as McKenney and Hall, the Siebert copy is the only complete example listed as having sold at auction in the past twenty-five years.

All of the original portraits by Lewis were destroyed in the Smithsonian fire of 1865.