“THE MOST COMPLETE WORK OF ITS KIND… A PRODUCTION OF UNRIVALLED INTEREST AND BEAUTY”: MICHAUX’S LANDMARK NORTH AMERICAN SYLVA WITH NUTTALL’S CONTINUATION, CONTAINING 277 SUPERB HAND-COLORED PLATES, IN PUBLISHER’S DECORATIVE FULL MOROCCO-GILT

MICHAUX, F. Andrew. The North American Sylva, Or A Description of the Forest Trees of the United States, Canada and Nova Scotia. Three volumes. WITH: NUTTALL, Thomas. The North American Sylva… Not Described in the Work of F. Andrew Michaux. Philadelphia: D. Rice & A.N. Hart, 1859. Three volumes bound in two (as issued). Altogether, five volumes. Royal octavo, original full brown morocco, raised bands, elaborate brown-stamped boards, all edges gilt.    $15,000.

Lovely early edition of Michaux’s landmark work and its continuation by Nuttall, illustrated with a total of 277 splendid hand-colored plates, a beautiful copy in full publisher’s morocco.

First published in 1810 and translated into English in 1817, Michaux’s Sylva was the result of ten years of research in North America. The 156 hand-colored plates were drawn by the Redouté brothers, Pierre Joseph and Henri Joseph, and Pancrace Bessa, and upon its publication the work was recognized as an authority in the field. The continuation of the Sylva was executed by Thomas Nuttall, an experienced American botanist and ornithologist whose Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada (1832) rivalled Audubon and Wilson in terms of strictly scientific contributions; the first ornithological club in America was named in his honor rather than after his more illustrious contemporaries. Nuttall’s work, first published from 1842 to 1849, added 121 hand-colored plates to the 156 originally issued with Michaux’s Sylva. “Of the two works united, it is no exaggeration to remark that it is the most complete work of its kind, and is a production of unrivalled beauty, giving descriptions and illustrations of all the forest trees of North America, from the arctic limits of arborescent vegetation to the confines of the tropical circle” (Sabin 48695). Plates in Volume I of Nuttall are complete (Plate 23 misnumbered 28, the sequence omits 30 and 31, and instead includes additional plates at numbers 5 and 10, for 60 total plates in Volume I, as issued). Sabin 48695, 56351. Nissen 1361.

Text and plates very bright and fine, publisher’s bindings beautiful. A fine copy.