Philadelphia: May-December, 1835. In eight (of 10) parts only. Broadsheets (490 x 300 mm). Three leaves letterpress advertisements for parts 1-3 [all issued]; 64 lithographed plates with hand-coloring after Lewis by Lenham & Ducal of Philadelphia. (Without lithographed title-page and frontispiece, plate of Kun-nun-der-waaguinse-zoo with horizontal tear across images, other short marginal nicks and tears and slight soiling, but otherwise fresh.) Original printed wrappers, preserving original stab holes, the last part partially sewn, untrimmed (heavier fraying to front wrappers parts 5 and 8, some edgewear to wrappers). Provenance: Montclair Art Museum, LeBrun Library (sold Christie’s 14 December 2000, lot 356). Field 936; Howes L-315; Reese Stamped with a National Character 23; Sabin 40812

First edition of the earliest and rarest color-plate book on America's Indigenous peoples--a remarkable survival in the original wrappers. Recording the dress of the Potawatomi, Winnebago, Shawnee, Sioux, Miami, Fox, Iowa and other tribes at treaties of Prairie du Chien, Fort Wayne, Fond du Lac, and Green Bay. Scarcer than Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio, Maximilian's Reise in das Innere von Nord-America or McKenney and Hall's History of the Indian Tribes. Publication was costly, and the work was intended to be issued in 10 parts, each comprising 8 plates, and issued in printed wrappers. The publisher's bankruptcy during the printing of part 9 caused the edition to be reduced; part 10 was barely finished and sparsely distributed (and is thus now virtually unobtainable). An 11th part would have contained "Historical and Biographical Description of the Indians," but it was never published. The title (not present here) and three advertisement leaves complete the only text in the work, excluding text on the wrappers.