"Having studied
drawing for a short while in my youth under good masters, I felt
a great desire to make choice of a style more particularly
adapted to the imitation of feathers than the drawings in water
colours that I had been in the habit of seeing, and moreover, to
complete a collection not only valuable to the scientific class,
but pleasing to every person, by adopting a different course of
representation from the mere profile-like cut figures, given
usually in works of that kind." John James Audubon
Between 1827 and 1838, John James Audubon, brilliant
artist and naturalist who dedicated much of his life to painting
the birds and quadrupeds of North America, published in London,
England, in 'his own style', a series of 435 large-sized,
hand-colored etchings with aquatints in a folio entitled
The Birds of America.
These were reproduced primarily by Robert Havell and Sons from
Audubon’s watercolor paintings and often under the direct
supervision of Audubon himself. Since he portrayed each bird
life size, the larger birds often had to be drawn in unusual
positions to fit on the largest copper engraving plates then
available, approximately 27 x 39 inches. The largest bird was
the wild turkey cock, and the smallest was one of the minute
hummingbirds. With the final publication of these prints,
Audubon established his Birds of America
as the definitive portrayal of American birds in realistic
settings. These antique original prints, now more than 160 years
old, are known in the print trade as the Audubon-Havell
double
elephant folio edition because each was printed on giant "double
elephant" folio sheets of 100% cotton rag watermarked Whatman
paper.
Somewhat more than 250
complete sets were sold. The exact number was not accurately
recorded, but most were bound in four large volumes for the
subscribers. It is estimated that there are
more than 120
of the complete bound sets of these "original" prints still in
existence. There are also known to be at least three unbound,
flat sheet sets, one of which is in the National Gallery of Art
in Washington, D.C. In recent years a number of complete volumes
have been cut apart and auctioned off as individual prints at
ever-increasing prices. The American White Pelican, the Snowy
Owl, and the Wild Turkey Cock can sell for upwards of $100,000
each if in good condition. A Snowy Owl is currently offered by a
New York dealer for $125,000.
Recently,
a complete set brought $8,800,000 at auction at Christie's in
New York City.
