“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—A BEAUTIFUL SET

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. Three volumes bound as two (as issued). Philadelphia: Rice & A.N. Hart, 1859. Altogether, five volumes. Royal octavo, original full brown morocco, raised bands, elaborate blind-stamped boards, all edges gilt. Each volume housed in custom cloth chemise and half morocco slipcase.

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 set 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 is 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 56351. Nissen 1361. Although the front free endpaper of Volume I bears American poet Eugene Field’s signature and there is a leaf at the rear inscribed by Field’s son claiming that this set came from his father’s library (witnessed by a notary public), Field’s son—who did inherit his father’s library—was notorious for forging his father’s signature and claiming that books had been in his father’s possession so that he could sell them for more money.

A beautiful set in fine condition.