The Antelope and Deer in America. A Comprehensive Scientific Treatise Upon the Natural History, Including the Characteristics, Habits, Affinities, and Capacity for Domestication of the Antilocapra and Cervidae of North America by CATON, John Dean - 1877

New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1877. Hardcover. Small 4to. Brown/grey cloth with gilt and black lettering and gilt pictorial stamping. xvi, 426pp. Tissue-guarded frontispiece, numerous illustrations. Very good. Mild edgewear and bit of rubbing. Tight, attractive first edition of this scientific study by, of all people, the associate justice and later chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court (1812-95), a jurist who rode the circuit in Illinois' early days and sat as justice in more than 200 cases with Abraham Lincoln as attorney. This sharp copy bears a fine author signature and inscription in brown ink on inner flyleaf to "Hon. LB Crooker / with the compliments / of / JD Caton." (So bold in fact that its ghost image is visible on the page above and below it!) Crooker's small custom bookplate also graces the front pastedown. Crooker (1840-1928) served as captain with the 55th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and authored a study of their performance on the first day of the Battle of Shiloh. The front board portrait of an antelope is bright and fetching. Interesting copy -- and very scarce.