An exceptional and very appealing set of this illustrated classic, in remarkably good condition in its charming original bindings. The American and Canadian publications appear in this form as one continuous work, numbered as a coherent series on the bindings, and including over 200 steel-engraved images. "The New World of Columbus… its sudden rise to independence, wealth and power" (Author's preface) is captured in this Victorian publication on the United States and "British America" (Canada) with fine engravings after the noted British landscape painter William Henry Bartlett.

An exceptional and very appealing set of this illustrated classic, in remarkably good condition in its charming original bindings. The American and Canadian publications appear in this form as one continuous work, numbered as a coherent series on the bindings, and including over 200 steel-engraved images. "The New World of Columbus… its sudden rise to independence, wealth and power" (Author's preface) is captured in this Victorian publication on the United States and "British America" (Canada) with fine engravings after the noted British landscape painter William Henry Bartlett.

This wonderful illustrated romp was published at a time to illustrate the last days of relative freedom of the North American native peoples and the development of the cities on the West coast of America and (unusually) Lower Canada. William Bartlett "made four voyages to the United States and Canada…the fruits of which appeared in American Scenery and Canadian Scenery" (DNB). The famous plates depict North American cities (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington); important buildings such as the U.S. Bank, the Capitol, and Yale College; bridges, parks, falls, ferries, rivers; as well as fine views of Canada through Quebec, Montreal, Toronto and including Niagara Falls and Thousand Isles. Also included is an engraved portrait of Bartlett, a map of the north-eastern United States and Lower Canada. Sabin calls Canadian Scenery "the finest of Mr. Bartlett's works." Willis's ("The Literary Department") accompanying letterpress lyrically opines on the picturesque, quoting Byron's Childe Harold on sighting Niagara Falls and noting that in America the traveller may imagine "an Eden newly-sprung from the ocean".