Beschreibung:

CATLIN, George (1796-1872). O-Kee-Pa: A Religious Ceremony; and Other Customs of the Mandans . London: Trübner and Co., 1867. 4 o (252 x 176 mm). Half-title. (Few short marginal tears to first text leaf, "Folium Reservatum" lightly creased and dampstained.) 13 chromolithographed plates after Catlin by Simonau & Toovey. Publisher's brown cloth, front cover gilt-panelled and -lettered, edges gilt, by Edmonds & Remnants, with their ticket (some minor rubbing at extremities). Provenance : Rev. J.I. Taylor (presentation from the members of the Haslington-Road Mutual Improvement Class dated 1870 on front free endpaper); brown quarter morocco slipcase. FIRST EDITION, WITH THE VERY SCARCE 3-PAGE "FOLIUM RESERVATUM." The Mandans were practically decimated by smallpox in 1837, shortly after Catlin's visit. The present work, then, is an important historical record, preserving the Mandan buffalo dance ceremony, or O-Kee-Pa. In the preface is a letter from Prince Maximilian (see lot 216) who described the dance but did not see it first-hand. The "Folium Reservatum" is a very scarce survival, printed in an edition of approximately 25 copies in Philadelphia, 1867. Due to the sexually graphic nature of the frenzied buffalo dance, details of its practice were deemed too shocking for the public. The laid-in "Folium Reservatum" provides these details. Bennett p. 22; Field 262; Howes C-244; Sabin 11543.