AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY: OR THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES.  Six Volumes.

Lot of 6 Volumes (of 9), including: Volume II, published 1810; IV, published 1811; V, published 1812; VI, published 1812; VII, published 1813; IX, published 1814.

Hardcover in marbled paper covered boards with cloth spines, illustrated with plates engraved and colored from original drawings taken from nature by Alexander Wilson.  Boards loosening and/or detached on some volumes.   Colors of images in good condition.

Each volume signed on the title page, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746-1825), prominent South Carolina statesman and delegate at the Constitutional Convention. Volumes V, VI and IX also signed "JE Holbrook" for John Edwards Holbrook (1796-1871), husband of Harriott Pinkney Rutledge and author of North American Herpetology, or a Description of the Reptiles inhabiting the United States. 

Illustrated with 76 hand-colored engraved plates after Wilson by Alexander Lawson, Benjamin Tanner, G. Murray, and J. G. Warnicke. FIRST ISSUE (preface dated 1 October 1808) of this pioneering work by the "father of American ornithology." Wilson's original drawings and paintings of birds and detailed observations of their habits and habitats combined to produce "the first truly great American ornithology and also the first truly outstanding American colour plate book of any type" (Bennett 114), predating Audubon. The numerous figures represent 262 species of birds, 39 of which were new to science and 23 re-classified. Volumes I-VII were published during the author's life; Volume VIII was edited by George Ord and Volume IX completed by him from Wilson's notes and his own observations. Sabin 104597; Zimmer page 679.

Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology is one of the great early American color plate books. It is the first American work to use color plates to convey scientific information, and it is the first real combination of text and color illustration produced in the United States. (Reese, Nineteenth Century American Color Plate Books) In the 76 plates, most engraved by Alexander Lawson, Wilson depicted more than three quarters of the species of birds known to exist in America at that time. Joseph Felcone Wilson, a Scot, began work on American birds in 1802 with the encouragement of William Bartram. The feverish pace of his work, which began to be published in 1808, weakened his constitution, and he died suddenly in 1813, with the eighth volume in press. His friend George Ord completed the work and wrote a memoir in the final volume. Although incomplete in scope, because of Wilson's narrow geographical travels and his early death, it was by far the most extensive work about American birds. Likewise, the color plates set a new standard of achievement for works produced in America, even though Wilson's artistry was sometimes crude, and the depictions of birds are stiff and out of scale compared to Audubon. In fact, as a self-taught poet and schoolmaster who came late to such work, he did a remarkable job, although he was fated to be outshone by Audubon. Wilson's first volume appeared in September, 1808; the present set is the second issue, with a different imprint than the first. The second volume came out in 1810, the third and fourth in 1811, the fifth and sixth in 1812, and the seventh and eighth in 1813. Ord produced the final volume in 1814. Wilson's book is a great pioneering effort in both American bookmaking and science. It remained a standard book even after Audubon, and possibly went through more editions than Audubon's octavo set, staying in print in one form or another until the 1880's. Bennett calls it "the first truly outstanding American color plate book of any type." MEISEL III, p.369. DAB XX, p.317. BENNETT, p.114. SABIN 104597.

I've done my best to describe the books, but if you have additional questions, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail.