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Octavo Birds
3 items
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 AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851)
The Birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories
New York & Philadelphia: E.G.Dorsey for J.J.Audubon and [vols.I-V] J.B.Chevalier, [1839-]1840-1844. 7 volumes, octavo signed in 4s (10 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches). 18pp. subscribers' lists. 500 hand-coloured lithographed plates after Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock, R. Trembley and others, printed by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia (plates 1-135, 151-500) or George Endicott of New York (plates 136-150), numerous wood-engraved anatomical figures in text. (Without half-titles, plate number 471 misbound between plates 475 and 476 in vol.VII). Contemporary black pebble-grained morocco gilt, covers with single gilt fillet border, spines in five compartments with double raised bands, the bands highlighted in gilt and blind, lettered in gilt in the second and fourth compartments, turn-ins tooled in blind, marbled endpapers, red-sprinkled edges. Provenance: T. J. Coolidge (armorial bookplate); Amory Coolidge (inscription in vol.I noting the gift of the work from 'C.A.C.' dated 1930).
A very fine copy of the first octavo edition of "Audubon's Great National Work" with the plates remarkably free of the spotting that often mars this work. This is the first complete edition and the first American edition, with the 'Black-shouldered Elanus' plate (no. 16) in its earliest state, and with plate 17 'Mississippi Kite' correctly numbered 17. The work is one of the "most beautiful, popular, and important natural history books published in America in the nineteenth century... [also] representing the best of pre-Civil War American lithography and giving Audubon the opportunity finally to display his scholarship and genius to a large American audience for the first time" (Ron Tyler)
The plates, here accompanied by the text for the first time, were reduced and variously modified from the Havell engravings in the double-elephant folio. Seven new species are figured and seventeen others, previously described in the Ornithological Biography but not illustrated, were also shown for the first time. Audubon may have been prompted to publish the reduced version of his double-elephant folio by the appearance in 1839 of John Kirk Townsend's rival Ornithology of the United States, or, as he writes in the introduction to the present work, he may have succumbed to public demand and his wish that a work similar to his large work should be published but `at such a price, as would enable every student or lover of nature to place it in his Library'.
The first edition of the octavo work is certainly the most famous and accessible of all the great American colour plate books, and now represents the only realistic opportunity that exists for collectors to own an entire collection of Audubon images in a form that was overseen and approved by the great artist himself. The octavo Birds of America was originally issued in 100 parts, each containing five plates. The whole story of the production of the book, with detailed information about every aspect of the project, is told by Ron Tyler in Audubon's Great National Work (Austin, 1993). The story Tyler tells of the difficulties of production and marketing are revealing of the whole world of colour printing in mid-19th-century America. The enormous success of the work was important to Audubon for two main reasons: first, it was a moneymaker, marketed throughout the United States on a scale that the great cost of the original Birds of America had made impossible. Second, by combining a detailed text with careful observations next to his famous images, he offered further proof that he was as good a scientific naturalist as the members of the scientific establishment who had scorned his earlier work.
Bennett p.5; Fries, Appendix A; Nissen IVB 51; Reese Stamped With A National Character 34; Ripley 13; Ron Tyler Audubon's Great National Work (1993) Appendix I; Sabin 2364; Wood p.208; Zimmer p.22
#17146 $120,000.00  
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 AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851)
The Birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories
New York & Philadelphia: E.G.Dorsey for J.J.Audubon, 1843. Volume VI only (of 7), octavo (10 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches). Half-title, 1p. list of subscribers at rear. 70 hand-coloured lithographed plates (numbers 351-420) after Audubon, printed by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia, numerous wood-engraved anatomical figures in text. (Light spotting to plates). Contemporary half morocco, spine gilt (extremities worn, partially disbound).
The best volume from the first edition of the octavo issue of this great work.
This volume includes: snipe, woodcock, avocet, stilt, curlews, ibises, spoonbills, herons, bitterns, egrets, flamingo, geese, swans, ducks, mergansers, cormorants and the anhinga. Audubon seems to have had a particular affinity with the long-legged, long-necked wading birds that were in the majority in this volume: his images of the flamingo, various ibises and herons are amongst his most memorable plates. In addition, this volume contains the spectacular Wood Duck plate - the quintessential Audubon tour-de-force where a moment in the lives of two pairs of these beautiful birds is captured, frozen in time.
The complete octavo Birds of America was originally issued in 100 parts, each containing five plates, and designed to be bound up into seven volumes. The whole story of the production of the book, with detailed information about every aspect of the project, is told by Ron Tyler in Audubon's Great National Work (Austin, 1993). The story Tyler tells of the difficulties of production and marketing are revealing of the whole world of colour printing in mid-19th-century America. The enormous success of the work was important to Audubon for two main reasons: first, it was a moneymaker, marketed throughout the United States on a scale that the great cost of the original Birds of America had made impossible. Second, by combining a detailed text with careful observations next to his famous images, he offered further proof that he was as good a scientific naturalist as the members of the scientific establishment who had scorned his earlier work.
Bennett p.5; Fries, Appendix A; Nissen IVB 51; Reese Stamped With A National Character 34; Ripley 13; Ron Tyler Audubon's Great National Work (1993) Appendix I; Sabin 2364; Wood p.208; Zimmer p.22
#20570$37,500.00
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 AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851)
The Birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories
New York & Philadelphia: E.G.Dorsey for J.J.Audubon, 1843. Volume V only (of 7), octavo (10 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches). Half-title, 1p. list of subscribers at rear. 70 hand-coloured lithographed plates (numbers 351-420) after Audubon, printed by J.T. Bowen of Philadelphia, numerous wood-engraved anatomical figures in text. (Light spotting to plates). Contemporary half morocco, spine gilt (extremities worn, partially disbound).
A fine representative volume, including the spectacular Turkey plates, from the first edition of the octavo issue of this great work.
This volume includes: doves, turkey, partridges, grouse, rails, cranes, plovers, and snipe.
The complete octavo Birds of America was originally issued in 100 parts, each containing five plates, and designed to be bound up into seven volumes. The whole story of the production of the book, with detailed information about every aspect of the project, is told by Ron Tyler in Audubon's Great National Work (Austin, 1993). The story Tyler tells of the difficulties of production and marketing are revealing of the whole world of colour printing in mid-19th-century America. The enormous success of the work was important to Audubon for two main reasons: first, it was a moneymaker, marketed throughout the United States on a scale that the great cost of the original Birds of America had made impossible. Second, by combining a detailed text with careful observations next to his famous images, he offered further proof that he was as good a scientific naturalist as the members of the scientific establishment who had scorned his earlier work.
Bennett p.5; Fries, Appendix A; Nissen IVB 51; Reese Stamped With A National Character 34; Ripley 13; Ron Tyler Audubon's Great National Work (1993) Appendix I; Sabin 2364; Wood p.208; Zimmer p.22
#20571$15,000.00
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