History of the Indian Tribes of North America. Philadelphia: Rice, Rutter & Co., 1870.
3 volumes. 8vo (279 x 187 mm). [2], iv, [3]-333; iv, [3]-319; iv, [17]-392 pp. 121 hand-colored lithographed plates. Original tan cloth with paper spine labels, marbled endpapers. Pale foxing to edges mostly affecting margins of text but occasionally touching plates, spines slightly sunned, labels rubbed, text largely unopened, plates overall very fine.
Provenance: Edward Exton Barclay (armorial bookplates).

An excellent copy of the one of the last octavo editions to include hand-colored plates. Howes describes the original paintings by Charles Bird King, of which the plates are copies, as "the most colorful portraits of Indians ever executed." Those paintings were all lost in the 1865 Smithsonian fire. From the publisher's preface: "The universal approval of the folio edition of the work, has induced the publishers of the present edition to alter the size to royal octavo, and thus place it within reach of the thousands who, with taste and learning equal to those of the patrons of the large edition, have no less capacity to appreciate its worth and beauties....They also believe that the smaller edition will be preferred to the large, as it is better suited for a library." Howes M129; Sabin 43411.