Philadelphia, PA, Weik & Wieck, [1854]. Oblong folio (27.2 x 36.0 cm). 25 finely lithographed plates, all in accurate original hand-colouring (14 plates with American birds; five European; one Asian; five Australian). Publisher's moiré silk-covered boards, with elaborate polychrome floral pattern larded with figures of birds and two gilt dragons. All edges gilt.

A very rare and beautiful, wonderfully illustrated bird atlas, with fine illustrations after the great French bird illustrator Édouard Traviès de Villers (1809-1876) who was one the best natural history illustrators of his time. He worked for George Cuvier, Alcide d'Orbigny and other zoologists, and published several ornithological works himself. As it was published in the United States, American birds - including several hummingbirds - feature most prominently. But Australian-Oceanian birds - notably parrots and birds-of-paradise are well-represented too. Little is known about the engraver. His name is in tiny letters on the rear board. The captions are in both English and German. The Weik & Wieck company imported German and German-made books for their German-born customers, therefore we assume that the artist was a German. Eight million Germans arrived in the USA during the 19th century (mainly in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New York), seven-and-a-half million between 1820 and 1870 alone, bringing kindergartens, Christmas trees, hamburgers, hotdogs, and strong anti-slavery sentiments with them. The work has no title page (the front board acting as such), and is not dated. The Garrett Library (Johns Hopkins University) lists 1854, perhaps based on an acquisition date. Slight shelf wear and staining to the silk, otherwise an excellent, clean copy. OCLC reports just nine copies: six in North American libraries, two in Australia, and one in the Netherlands. There are just two auction records since 1900. Neither in Nissen nor in any other major bibliography.