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[Hubbard, J. R. & Chester, W. T.].

Celebrated Horses of America [spine and cover title] [actual title from wrappers (not present) for original parts: “The Celebrated Horses of America. From paintings by the best artists. In ten parts.”]

[Boston: C. S. E. Cassino & E. K. Dunbar; Armstrong & Co., lith., 1881–1882]. Large oblong folio (19” x 24”), original three-quarters pebbled black morocco with brown cloth, gilt-stamped title and floral sprays on spine, gilt-stamped title on front cover, marbled endpapers. 24 leaves of letterpress, 24 chromolithographs, 10 3/4” x 14 3/4”, mounted on larger stiff leaves. Bookplate of William S. Reese (“Ex W.S.R. Libris”) on front paste-down. CONDITION: Binding worn at corners and edges, four-inch section at top of spine coming away, but still attached at rear hinge; contents generally very good, a few plates with light residue of paper or bits of paper stuck to image, occasional flecks of loss, two plates with minor repairs, one with some in-painting to loss at top edge, not affecting main portion of image, 2.5” x 5.75” loss to lower right corner of plate 1 letter press leaf (not affecting text), 6” tear along inner edge of same, 2” tear in top left margin of plate 2 letterpress, 2” tear in bottom margin of plate 7 letterpress (2 leaves), 7” tear along inner edge of plate 10 letterpress, three tears in lower margin of plate 20 letterpress (3”, 2” an .75”).

An exceptionally rare color-plate folio of American racehorses, with handsome chromolithographs by Armstrong & Company of Boston based on paintings by Henry Stull, Edwin Forbes, Scott Leighton, Harry Hall, and Maurice Scanlan. 

The horses portrayed include Volunteer, St. Julien, Parole, Ten Broeck, Maud S., Harold, Luke Blackburn, Nevada, Daniel Lambert, Smuggler, Leamington, Bonnie Scotland, Iroquois, Foxhall, Almont, Piedmont, Santa Claus, Messenger Duroc, Hindoo, Thora, Clingstone, Captain Lewis, Edwin Thorne, and Black Cloud. Some are shown in their stalls, others on the race course mounted by colorfully dressed jockeys, or standing in a field either alone or accompanied by a handler (in one case, an African American man). Smuggler is shown hitched to a sulky, charging forward in a race. One particularly fetching plate shows a jockey dressed in a polka-dotted jacket and cap seated on Iroquois. The letterpress preceding each plate presents a detailed account of the ownership, bloodline, and record of each horse. 

Originally issued by Cassino as twenty plates in ten parts in wrappers, as described by Goodspeed’s 1913-1914, internal evidence demonstrates that publication was taken over by Boston publisher E. K. Dunbar in 1882, at which time four plates were added to the series, all of which bear their copyright statement. Dunbar seems to have bound up the plates for sale as a single volume, discarding the wrappers in the process. OCLC locates only four copies, all of which are bound, apparently without the wrappers. The present copy has “E. K. Dunbar” stamped in gilt at the foot of the spine, something that almost certainly would not have been done for a private owner. Not in Podeschi/Mellon, Bennett or Reese. Goodspeed 100-311a (1913) and 103-601 (1914) offering the same copy, as recorded in Rare Book Hub. This is the William S. Reese copy, acquired by him from this firm in 2008 for $14,000 and reacquired by us following his death. 

A splendid equestrian folio and one of the rarest and most remarkable American color plate books of the nineteenth century.

Item #7534

Price: $17,500.00

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