AMERICAN SCENERY ; Or Land, Lake, and River Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature. From Drawings by W. H. Bartlett...

London: George Virtue, 1840. 2 volumes. First edition, with the standard 1840 title-page given for the engravings produced in installments from 1837 to 1839. State A with Contents list numbered in Vol. II. With the engraved portrait frontispiece of Bartlett in Vol. I, handsomely engraved vignette titles, engraved map of the North Eastern U.S., and 117 fine steel-engraved plates after drawings by Bartlett. 4to, in very handsome and elaborately tooled and deluxe binding of full forest-green crushed morocco, compartments of the spines richly gilt with beautiful panel designs between wide gilt-tooled bands, two compartments with gilt lettering, the covers with large all over decorations of geometric and floral gilt tooling within multi-ruled gilt frames, board edges and turn-ins tooled with a floral device, yellow endpapers, a.e.g. iv, 140; iv, 106 pp. A very handsome and impressive set, the fine bindings, well preserved with only minor expected age, the text firm and tight, a bit of foxing to some plates, as is always the case. Foxing is normal to the book, and is in this copy minor in most cases. FIRST EDITION, IN THE FINEST DELUXE FULL MOROCCO BINDINGS and one of famed illustrator William Bartlett's most important and most desirable collections. It comprises scenery mostly pictured by Bartlett in 1835, when he first visited the United States "in order to draw the buildings, towns and scenery of the northeastern states." Bartlett made sepia wash drawings the exact size to be engraved. The engravings were produced by Wallis, Cousen, Willmore and others. They are of splendid quality down to the finest details and are augmented even further by the text of Nathaniel P. Willis. All of Bartlett's works are still treasured and widely collected.
Bartlett died on board a French ship returning from a voyage to the Orient. Engravings based on Bartlett's views were later used in a posthumous History of the United State of North America, continued by B. B. Woodward.