3 volumes. iv, 333; xvii, [1], 9-290; iv, 17-392 pp. 120 hand-colored lithographed plates, plus lithographed dedication leaf; tissue guards. (Large 8vo) 26.5x16.5 cm. (10¼x6½"), original full brown morocco ornately tooled in gilt on spines and covers, gilt inner dentelles, all edges gilt. First Octavo Edition.

Superb set of the first octavo edition of this key work, originally issued in 20 folio parts over eight years, described by Field as "one of the most costly and important works ever published on the American Indians. The plates are accurate portraits of celebrated chiefs, or of characteristic individuals of the race, and are colored with care, to faithfully represent their features and costumes." Howes notes the plates as "mostly the work of [Charles Bird] King," and declares that they are "the most colorful portraits of Indians ever executed... The original oil paintings of which the plates were copies were all destroyed in the 1865 Smithsonian fire." Most of plates are from the portraits Bird painted of Native American delegates coming to Washington D.C., which were commissioned by government's Bureau of Indian Affairs. (Field 992); Howes M129.