12 hand-colored lithographs, 11.125" x 17", with 52pp of text, all bound in blue cloth boards, each titled and signed lower left, C. Nebel fecit, lower right Bayot lith. A complete set from George Wilkins Kendall, The War Between the United States and Mexico Illustrated. D. Appleton & Company, New York. 1851. An exceptionally scarce set, illustrating the highlights of the war in northern Mexico. One of only 500 copies printed, this is the art against which all other Mexican War illustrations are measured. Kendall, editor and publisher of the New Orleans Picayune, joined Zachary Taylor's army in Matamoras, Mexico, in 1846, and from then until the fall of Mexico City was in the thick of things, serving as both a correspondent and as a member of a Texas Ranger company. After the war, he returned to New Orleans and conceived this monumental work, choosing German artist Carl Nebel and the Paris firm of Rose-Joseph Lemercier as the lithographer. The result was an acknowledged masterpiece and was distributed in three formats, ranging in price from $34-40 depending upon style of binding. The appeal of this series was expressed well by the editor of the Louisville Daily Gazette: "What American, with an American heart, does not love to dwell on those scenes, where our countrymen covered our arms with glory, and won for themselves immortal fame? Who would not rather ornament his walls with these magnificent pictures of Kendall's - each one alive with glorious memories - rather than with unmeaning sketches or colored views, with which are connected no dear recollections?" (Sandweiss, et. al. Eyewitness to War, 1989: 38).
Condition: Slight scattered foxing on text pages, VG+.