Audubon, John James
£35,000
Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 3 September 2008 at 12:00 BST
Description
The birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories. New York and Philadelphia: J. J. Audubon and J.B. Chevalier (volumes I-V), 1840-42. New York and Philadelphia: J.J. Audubon (volumes VI-VII), 1843-44. First octavo edition bound from the original parts, 7 volumes, 8vo, 500 fine hand-coloured lithographed plates after John James Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock, R. Trembly and others, printed and coloured by J.T. Bowen, tissue guards throughout, wood-engraved illustrations, volume 1 with list of subscribers, volumes 2-7 with leaf of new subscribers, half-titles in volumes 1-6, contemporary green half calf, spines gilt, black morocco lettering and volume pieces, a few plates with very faint offsetting, a few plates very lightly spotted, occasional light spotting of text or tissue guards, plate 49 and pp. 245-6 volume VI bound upside down, plate 17 misnumbered 7, volume II page 71/72 and plate 102 with 1cm. marginal tear, slightly rubbed
Footnote
Note: A superb set of the first octavo edition of Audubon's ornithologial masterpiece and perhaps the most important American colour plate book of the 19th century. The plates, accompanied for the first time in this edition by the text, were reduced by camera lucida from the original Havell engravings for the double-elephant folio, and some of the backgrounds entirely changed or greatly modified. To the original plate count of the double-elephant folio, an extra 65 new images were added, making a total of 500 plates, making it "the most extensive color plate book produced in America up to that time" (Reese) and the "best of pre-Civil War American lithography" (Tyler). The text is a revision of the Ornithological Biography, rearranged according to Audubon's A synopsis of the birds of North America. (1839). Audubon writes in his introduction to this edition that it is his wish that a work similar to his large work should be published "at such a price, as would enable every student or lover of nature to place it in his library". The octavo Birds of America was originally issued in 100 parts, each containing five plates. Ayer/Zimmer 22; Bennett 5; Reese American Color Plate Books 34; Sabin 2364; cf. Tyler Audubon's Great National Work.