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Octavo Birds
2 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 (10 3/8 x 6 5/8 inches). Half-titles, 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. Contemporary black half morocco over black grained cloth-covered boards, covers with border bwteen cloth and leather ruled in gilt, spines in five compartments with semi-raised bands, the bands highlighted in gilt and flanked by fillets in blind, lettered in gilt in the second and fourth compartments, marbled endpapers (expert repairs to joints of vols.I, VI and VII). Housed in modern maroon cloth boxes, leather gilt labels. Provenance: W.S. Lincoln (subscriber from Boston, signatures to title pages in vols. II-VII).
A very fine subscriber's 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. 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
#21358 $115,000.00  
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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: V.G. Audubon, 1856 [-1857]. 7 volumes, large octavo (10 3/8 x 6 3/4 inches). Half-titles. 500 lithographed plates coloured by hand with colour-printed backgrounds by J.T. Bowen after Audubon, wood-engraved illustrations in the text. (Occasional spotting, mostly to the first and last few leaves). Publishers deluxe full black morocco covers elaborately blocked in gilt with panels surrounding a central design of the title in gilt with integral decorative flourishes, spines in six compartments with raised bands, the second and fourth lettered in gilt, the others with repeat decoration in gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, g.e.
A fine set of the second octavo edition of Audubon's Birds.
The second octavo edition was the first to be published after Audubon's death, by his son Victor, and the first to incorporate coloured backgrounds. Some of the plates for the present edition were redrawn, primarily when the original stones were broken or damaged.
The octavo edition of Audubon's Birds is certainly the most famous and accessible of American colour plate books. It served many purposes for Audubon. First, it was a moneymaker, successfully marketed throughout the United States on a scale that the great cost of the original double-elephant folio Birds made impossible. Second, it was another step toward proving himself as good a scientific naturalist as the "closet" naturalists who had scorned him, combining a detailed text with careful observations next to his plates. Third, it allowed a more reasonable arrangement by genus and species, than the headlong production the original project had followed. All of these steps were improvements, amply repaid by the book's success.
The octavo Birds was originally issued in 100 parts, each containing five plates executed by the Philadelphia lithographer, J.T. Bowen. Changes in subscribers and increased press runs created numerous states of plates as they were reprinted. 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 is revealing of the whole world of colour printing in mid-19th century America.
Anker 19; Nissen IVB 52; Ripley p.13; cf. Sabin 2364; Tyler Audubon's Great National Work (1993) Appendix 2.
#20851$60,000.00
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