Catlin's Nord-Amerikas Indianer

CATLIN, George (1796-1872).
Nord-Amerikas Indianer.
Stockholm: P.G. Berg, 1848.
Comparable: Christie's, 6/21/05 - $2,400.
8vo., (10 4/8 x 7 inches). Half-title. Hand-coloured lithographic frontispiece and 22 other plates (plates browned, with some occasional, mostly marginal, spotting). Contemporary half green morocco, gilt (skillfully rebacked preserving the original spine). Provenance: !9th-century engraved armorial bookplate on the front paste-down. First edition of Catlin's works in Swedish. The text is an amalgam of an abridgement of Catlin's "Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians" (1841) and his "North American Indian Portfolio" (1844). George Catlin, an illustrator from Philadelphia, was the first artist to travel widely among the Plains Indians of North America and create an important body of paintings and graphics to illustrate their customs and artifacts. His purpose was both unselfish and romantic. He wanted, and labored unceasingly, to persuade his contemporaries that Native American culture should be honored and preserved. In 1827 he became the first artist to attempt the perilous journey up the Missouri River, and the first to create visual records of his experiences traveling among the Plains Indians of North America. The artist himself best expressed his goal in the preface to the first edition of his celebrated North American Indian Portfolio in 1844: "The history and customs of such a people, preserved by pictorial illustrations, are themes worthy the lifetime of one man, and nothing short of the loss of my life shall prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian." Graff 630; Howes C-243; Sabin 11539; Wagner-Camp-Becker 84:14.