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Very Rare First American Edition.
An exceptionally rare lithograph from James Ackerman’s 1845 New York edition of George Catlin’s renowned North American Indian Portfolio. This powerful illustration, titled Buffalo Hunt, White Wolves Attacking a Buffalo Bull, captures a fierce and dramatic moment on the Great Plains, where a solitary buffalo bull is besieged by a pack of white wolves.
The scene shows the buffalo, bleeding and surrounded, yet standing its ground against a relentless pack. Catlin’s skillful portrayal of the wolves lunging toward the bull, some bloodied from the fray, emphasizes the brutality and raw energy of life in the wilderness. The composition is set against the backdrop of rolling hills, creating a stark and expansive landscape that accentuates the life-and-death struggle unfolding in the foreground.
This work exemplifies Catlin’s unique perspective on the American frontier, combining artistic flair with ethnographic interest, likely inspired by his extensive travels among the Native American tribes. It stands as both an artistic accomplishment and a historical document of the 19th-century West.
James Ackerman's 1845 Catlin North American Indian Portfolio.
"This book is of the most excessive rarity and worth several times the value of the more common British printing." - Bennett, page 27
The 1845 "pirate" New York edition of Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio is one of the great American color plate books, especially relating to Native American Indians and the West. James Ackerman intended it to show that American lithographers were every bit the equal of their London counterparts, whom Catlin had chosen to publish the first edition of his magnum opus in 1844.
Ackerman's images are different, and to many eyes superior, to those in the 1844 London first edition.
Bennett's Practical Guide to American 19th Century Color Plate Books (page 22) calls the coloring "superb."
Reese, in Stamped with a National Character (25), says:
Originally published in London in 1844, this New York 1845 edition was pirated from the English original, evidently without Catlin's knowledge or consent. Not only did the publisher and lithographer, James Ackerman, undersell the author's own edition; he had the cheek to write a preface which criticized Catlin for not publishing the work in the United States, followed by a manifesto proclaiming the ability of American craftsmen to equal the quality of Old World productions. The portfolio was available tinted, colored on paper, or colored mounted on card.
Reese located only thirteen copies of all three New York issues.
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