HISTORICAL NOTE

Between 1827 and 1838, John James Audubon, brilliant artist and naturalist, 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 studies that he had earlier composed during his several journeys throughout the young United States.  Looking back, Audubon wrote ... "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." 

Since he portrayed each bird life size, the larger birds often had to be drawn in unusual positions to later fit on the largest copper engraving plates then available, approximately 27 x 39 inches. These copperplates were large, thin, smooth plates of copper.  A reverse image or outline of the bird was engraved into the plate, after which the plate was black-inked and topped with a sheet of dampened Whatman paper, and then both were pressed together in the printing press. Each complete press was a strike.  Four hundred thirty-five different copperplate images, from hummingbirds to Herons, were struck about 200 times each.  The copperplate of the Flamingo, for example, was fitted with dampened paper and put in the press 200 times over the course of the twelve year period, as were all the other plates. This was about the limit of the day's technology, as the plates would eventually wear down through use over time. 

The paper was then pulled from off the copperplate, resulting in a now properly oriented black and white image.  Then a team of up to forty colorists, each with their own color, would in assembly line fashion color in between the lines, following as a guide the original compositions or smaller color proofs.  The resulting images became known as The Birds of America, the greatest ornithology work of all time.  These are the Audubon originals, also called Havells.

Most of these images were bound in large books.  About 130 of these books exist today, generally in museums and other institutions.  Some books were unbound and the prints framed.  It is these that occasionally come onto the market today in ever escalating prices. 

When setting forth on this great project, Audubon wrote ... "...nothing, after all, could ever answer my enthusiastic desires to represent nature, except to copy her in her own way, alive and moving!"  This is the great appeal of Audubon prints.  John James Audubon's compositions are filled with the drama of life, or as he himself put it ..."alive and moving!" 

They are also the same size as life!  The bird you purchase is the same size as the one out your window.  Audubon adds ... "Merely to say, that each of my illustrations is of the size of nature, were too vague ... Not only is every object, as a whole, of the natural size, but also every portion of each object. The compass aided me in its delineation, regulated and corrected each part, ... The bill, the feet, the legs, the claws, the very feathers as they project one beyond another, have been accurately measured." John James Audubon. Ornithological Biography, Volume 1

Today, the cost and sheer beauty of these originals has led to many reproduction editions.  Of these, Princetons are said to be the absolute finest, as they are the world's only direct-camera folio re-creations, being similar to a restrike of an original copperplate.  Princeton did not reproduce photographs of originals, as Amsterdam and Abbeville has (Both of which are fine editions), nor did Princeton simply print out an ink-jet copy, a computer generated giclee image which has been modified through PhotoShop.  Princetons are extraordinarily beautiful historic re-creations of the actual original Havells which we purchased and physically utilized in our proprietary process.

Audubon art is truly exceptional.  It is art from a calmer time.  We invite you to browse through our galleries.  Thank you for visiting with us.