Colton's Atlas of America (1856), Philadelphia Commercial Edition
NY: New York: J. H. Colton & Co., 1856. First Edition. Hardcover. Folio, 19 x 17 inches, publisher's cloth boards stamped in gilt on front, recent black cloth over the deteriorated leather spine, black cloth reinforcement to inner hinges. Good with general moderate wear to edges and corners of boards, contents mainly very good, toning and tanning, light corner wear and darkening throughout, but maps and plates generally in very good condition. One preliminary text page with long horizontal tear, now repaired. Collated complete with engraved frontispiece vignette and 58 hand-colored engraved mapsheets (2 double-page), maps 39-44 all present but slightly out of order: all the maps listed in the table of contents are present and in mainly very good condition with original handcoloring. The rare Philadelphia Commercial Edition, limited to 1000 copies, published specifically for Philadelphia businesses to purchase advertising space within, which included some of the most interesting and decorative trade ads of the period. Some auction records mention double-page ads and "several" in color -- we did not see any double-page ads in this volume and only 2 in color, and there's evidence (stubs of paper) that several ad pages have been cut out, but there are many, many full page ads with illustrations in b/w. Consistently high auction records, with a highwater mark achieved in 2018 at Swann of $11,250. We're generously deducting $7000 for missing ad pages. Good. Item #h44117
Price: $4,000.00