James Lewis

Plates from The Aboriginal Port Folio
James Lewis, 1838-1839
LEWIS, James Otto (1799-1858). [A group of loose plates and text from the quarto edition of The Aboriginal Port Folio. New York and London, 1838-39.]
A group of text and plates from the quarto edition of Lewis's work, including 17 plates printed by lithographer John Bufford. Reese notes that despite the "sputtering completion" of the first folio edition, "the Aboriginal Port Folio was to have an extraordinary afterlife of attempts to create other editions, with no less than four abortive versions begun and abandoned between 1838-1853." The present lot is a sampling of these attempts, including the 3 pp. London preface to the 1838 edition. This edition "was proposed to be five numbers with six plates each, accompanied by an explanatory text. Only one number, with seven plates, was ever issued, its preface dated February 1838." The London preface is together here with ten plates printed not by J.Graf (who did the London edition) but by John. H. Bufford. "The 1838 New York edition came closer to succeeding than any of the other quarto editions, with three of the five proposed numbers ultimately appearing. From its rarity we must suppos
Quarto. Together 17 plates (including 4 duplicates) and 36 pages of text (including 3 pp. Preface to the London edition), comprised of: (1) 7 loose hand-colored plates (283 x 228mm), all but one matted (one plate with small loss to margin, a little toning to versos; unmatted plate with some browning and stab holes); and (2) Text and plates sewn in paper wrappers (300 x 235mm), including 10 plates (2 of which are colored) and text from parts 1 and 3, paginated 1-16 and 33-52 (some foxing and staining).