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2 volumes. Subscribers list. 79 hand-colored lithographed plates after Joseph Wolf by J. Smit and J.G. Keulemans (including one folding plate of feathers, the others all full portraits of pheasants in their habitats), printed by M. and N. Hanhart and P.W.M. Trap, colored by J.D. White, many plates heightened with gum arabic; 2 uncolored plates of heads and feet by and after Smit. Large folio, 23½x18, period full red morocco by Bickers & Son, London with wide gilt borders with floral corners, spines gilt in 7 compartments, all edges gilt.

“Of the great nineteenth-century ornithological monographs, none save Audubon’s is so sumptuous as D.G. Elliot’s Monograph of the Phasianidae, or Family of the Pheasants…a rare American contribution to this elegant class of books. It was entirely illustrated by the incomparable Joseph Wolf” (Mengel, p.44).

There are 79 large and magnificent hand-colored plates after Joseph Wolf (1820-1899) whom Sir Edwin Landseer called "without exception, the best all-round animal artist who ever lived" (quoted in The Natural History Museum of London’s 2001 exhibition catalogue). Elliot himself fully realized the importance of Wolf’s work to his own and dedicated these volumes to his friend, “whose unrivalled talent has graced these works with their chief attraction”. The coloring itself is wonderfully meticulous and in excellent condition. The breasts and throats of many birds are heightened with gum arabic, adding iridescence to the feathers. Many of the pheasants are depicted life-size.

The Pheasants is considered to be Elliot’s finest work. Elliot (1835-1915) was a leading figure in 19th century American natural history. He was one of the founders of the American Ornithologists Union, was curator of zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and co-founded (with Albert Bickmore) the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The latter institution holds Elliot’s papers and Wolf’s original watercolors to the present work. Elliot attached great importance to the Phasianidae. Of all the families in the ornithological system, he regarded it as the one most vital to the human race, “containing within it the species that afford food for thousands of mankind, and also those which are the original source of all the domestic poultry met with throughout the civilized world.” Although less expensive methods of color reproduction were in use when this book was published, Elliot required hand-colored lithographs. Fortunately, his independent fortune allowed him to produce his work on the lavish scale he desired. Elliot’s earlier monographs had hand-colored lithographs by Bowen & Co. of Philadelphia. However, J.T. Bowen’s widow closed the firm in 1869 and Elliot was forced to look outside the United States. He moved to Europe and had the plates for the rest of his books produced in Belgium, although he continued to use a New York imprint. The Pheasants was originally issued in 6 parts between June 1870 and October 1872.

Recent documentary evidence suggests that the lithograph stones to this work were destroyed after only 150 copies were taken (see Sotheby’s London, 5 June 2001). This set is from a private American collection; it has been in the owner's family since 1936 when it was purchased at an estate sale, probably near Chicago, Illinois. Despite this work’s American origin, it is rare in the United States. Of the 119 copies in the subscriber's list, only 13 were intended for Americans.

Fine Bird Books, p.74; Nissen IVB 295; Zimmer p.206; also see Reese, 19th Century American Color Plate Books, p.63 and R.M. Mengel, “Beauty and the Beast: Natural History and Art” in The Living Bird 18, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, 1979-1980.