I have a copy of the book above, Brown's Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Citizens and Fac-Similes, dated on the title page in Roman Numerals, MDCCCXLV - 1845. I started researching online. Some similar books have the date 1846, MDCCCXLCI These versions are different - 1846 has 3 full color prints. 1845 does not...for example, there is a silhouette of George Washington in the both versions, but only the 1846 version has a blue background..Otherwise, they have the same silhouettes and letters printed, slightly different in size and book bindings. One version was mostly destroyed in a fire, one wasn't - not sure which. Then I did an AI search which said this: The version of William Henry Brown's "Portrait Gallery of Distinguished American Citizens" that includes color frontispieces is the first edition published in 1846, which features "27 tinted lithographed silhouette portraits" along with facsimiles of handwriting. My book doesn't have color frontispieces, but it is dated 1845 - doesn't that make mine the first edition, not the 1846 version? Or is AI right?
The Met and the Brooklyn Museum mention a 1844 version https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/346743 https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/54750 1846 version at Sotheby's https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/_wi...similes-of-original-letters-first-edition87d7 AI might have used the Sotheby's text as source, as they mention the 1846 edition is a first edition copy, but Sotheby's might mean that it's the first edition of this version with the coloured frontispiece.
AI should never be trusted for info. It's a copy/paste regurgitation machine with no context and often lacking cited sources that it stole from.
I used AI once to find out if there was a specific abbreviation for a term. I couldn't find any site backing up the answer AI gave, so I asked if it was certain the answer was correct and if it could give me a link to a site to prove it. The answer I got then was somethink like 'I'm sorry, i shouldn't have given that answer, as I'm not sure it's correct'
The reverse of the title page shows the copyright date as 1844, so your 1845 printing would not be considered a first. Not that it really matters much with this type of book. They were issued in many editions, often by more than one publisher. They are generally not of interest to collectors, with the exception of dealers who want to cut the plates out and try to sell them individually.
