The Cabinet of Natural History and American Rural Sports.
Philadelphia: J. & T. Doughty, 1830-1833.
Price: $10,000.00
About the item
First edition. Three uncolored steel-engraved titles with vignettes, two uncolored steel-engraved portrait frontispieces, and fifty-seven plates (three uncolored, the others being hand colored lithographs after Thomas Doughty [23], M.E.D. Brown [16], J.G. Clonney [8] and others). vii,[1],298,[2]; vii,[3],292; 96pp. Text in two columns. 3 vols. 4to. Modern three quarter green morocco preserving contemporary tan paper covered boards. Foxing and toning to the text, the plates largely in very good condition with bright hand coloring. Phillips p. 69; Reese, American Color Plate Books, #12; Gee, Early American Sporting Books, pp.48-49; Henderson p.37; Howes D433: Litchfield 19; Bennett 35; Biscotti, Six Centuries of Foxhunting, p. 117. Robert F. Looney, "Thomas Doughty, Printmaker" in Philadelphia Printmaking (West Chester, 1976), pp.130-48. Provenance: Charles West Thomson (booklabels); Michael Zinman.
Item #373706
"A mine of information on contemporary sport and natural history" (Phillips). A landmark of American sporting publication, issued in parts by the brothers Thomas and John Doughty. Subscriptions dwindled after Thomas departed for Boston, and the publication ceased with the 4th part of vol. III. "This was the first major book issued in the United States to be illustrated with hand-colored lithographic plates, preceded only by three minor books in the 1820s ... an amalgam of natural history, sporting accounts, travel narratives, and practical advice for the countryman" (Reese)
A rare complete set of the "American Field Sports" in exceptionally fine condition, with all the plates in their first states, none of the usual spotting or browning and including twenty-three original lithographs by Thomas Doughty, the founding father of the Hudson River School.
The Cabinet of Natural History "an amalgam of natural history, sporting accounts, travel narratives, and practical advice for the countryman" (Reese), was started by brothers Thomas and John Doughty in Philadelphia. It was issued in monthly parts and ran from the end of 1830 until the spring of 1834 when it ceased publication. The first volume (made up of twelve parts ) was certainly the work of both Doughty brothers, with virtually all the plates being the work of Thomas, but by the time the third part of the second volume had been issued, the partnership had been broken up. Thomas had moved to Boston to pursue his career as a painter, and as of May 17, 1832, John Doughty was the sole proprietor. Evidently Thomas' input was sorely missed, and by mid-summer John was advising his subscribers that unless the level of support improved he would have to discontinue the publication. In the end the periodical continued for almost another year, with some excellent images from artists such as M.E.D. Brown and James Goodwyn Clooney, before John Doughty's prediction was fulfilled and the publication came to an abrupt halt with Part IV of the third volume. However, despite its relatively short life, The Cabinet of Natural History left behind an important legacy: Bennett calls it the "first major sport print color plate book produced in America," the text includes first-hand accounts of hunting expeditions of all kinds and are amongst the earliest of their kind (some of which were reprinted by the Derrydale Press in 1928), the plates include the "first colored sporting prints made in America" (Henderson), and most importantly the work includes a significant number of original lithographs by one of the great names in 19th-century American art.
"Of all the predecessors to [Thomas] Cole and his followers, the single artist who could most reasonably claim Cole's mantle as the founder of the [Hudson River] school is the appealing figure of Thomas Doughty, who at one juncture was hailed as 'the all-American Claude Lorrain'...he was the leading landscape painter in Boston, traveled in England and France, and lived in New York City, Newburgh, and western New York...Doughty traveled extensively throughout the northeastern United States, painting rivers, mountains, and woods interiors that are memorable for their mood, tonality, and quality of light...[Tuckerman wrote] of his woodland landscapes, that 'there was often a cool, vivid tone, a true execution, and especially a genuine American character to them'" - Howat.
As a painter Doughty "holds a place unique among artists of this country as having 'initiated the American discovery of the American landscape'" (Looney).
His importance as a print maker has yet to be fully recognized or adequately defined for though "there are many prints to which Doughty's name is attached as artist only, there are only a few for which he was initially completely responsible...These are the 23 lithographs made specifically for Volume I of...The Cabinet of Natural History...To these may the added 4 views published separately in 1832 whose subjects are unrelated to the Cabinet" (op. cit.). Doughty initially trained as a leather currier but by 1820 was listing himself in the Philadelphia City Directory as a landscape painter. "He was restless...energetic...gifted...[and] was popular almost from the start. People obviously liked his vision of a benevolent natural world...He exhibited frequently in Philadelphia and elsewhere...he was collected - he was, in a word, a success" (op. cit.). His work was engraved for use in various publications from the early 1820s onwards, but his "major contribution to the world of printmaking, however, lies not in the 40-odd illustrations taken from his paintings and drawings but rather in the plates he himself made for [the present work]" (op. cit). American lithography was still in its infancy when the Doughtys began their periodical, and it is not clear where Thomas learned the art. "...He proved himself an able practitioner in the plates of Volume I of the Cabinet, which are important as the first sporting prints in color made in America" (op. cit.). This volume also has the distinction of being the first major book of any kind with colored lithographic plates printed in America. There were two earlier minor works but "their lithographic illustrations, being chiefly diagrams, have not the same artistic quality as those of the Cabinet of 1830 with its studies of birds and animals in natural settings and dramatic landscapes. Moreover, the Cabinet was widely distributed, and the first eight issues at least were a popular success. In this way, introducing the colored lithograph to a wide audience, it made an important contribution to the development of American lithography...1830 was thus crucial in the history of American lithography for the lithographic print came of age, and this was largely through the work of Thomas Doughty" (op. cit).
