Audubon's Birds of America - photo 1
Audubon's Birds of America - photo 2
Audubon's Birds of America - photo 3

Audubon's Birds of America

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$ 47 880
Auction dateClassic
19.10.2023 10:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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ID 1032800
Lot 148 | Audubon's Birds of America
AUDUBON, John James (1785–1851). The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories. New York: J.J. Audubon; Philadelphia: J.B. Chevalier, [1839-], 1840-1844.

First octavo edition of Audubon's masterwork; with 500 hand-colored plates. Following the success of his original 1827-1838 double-elephant folio edition of Birds, John James Audubon created 65 new drawings for this compact octavo edition, bringing the number of plates to 500 and widening the work’s global audience. "The octavo edition of Audubon’s Birds was probably the greatest commercial success of any color plate book issued in 19th-century America. While Audubon had become internationally famous in the course of producing the double-elephant folio edition of Birds in London between 1826 and 1839, it was this octavo version, issued at $100, which achieved widespread circulation and brought the work into the homes of many well-to-do Americans" (Stamped with a National Character). The accompanying text is a revision of the Ornithological Biography, rearranged according to Audubon’s "A Synopsis of the Birds of North America" (1839). Ayer/Zimmer, p. 22; Bennett, p. 5; McGill/Wood, p. 208; Nissen IVB 51; Sabin 2364; Stamped with a National Character 34.

Seven volumes, royal octavo (260 x 163mm). Subscribers’ list present in each volume. 504 hand-colored lithographic plates (of 500, including 4 duplicates) after Audubon’s drawings from nature by W.E. Hitchcock, R. Trembly and others, printed and colored by J.T. Bowen, with wood-engraved anatomical illustrations in-text (without half-titles, a little foxing mostly to text but occasionally to plates, few instances of light offsetting from text to plates, occasional small tears to tissue guards, cloth bookmarks all present but detached, pl.120 with some finger smudging, pl.336 misplaced after p.296, some marking along fore-edge of pl. 491 not affecting illustration, gutter discoloration on vol. 7 Subscriber’s List, duplicates of pl. 401 (after p.360), pl. 471-472 (after p.280), and pl. 491 (after p.352)). Contemporary morocco gilt, all edges gilt (spines a little sunned, light scuffing to joints and extremities, text blocks cracked in a few places, a little discoloration to endpapers at turn-ins). Provenance: "CWW" (mid 20th century bookplates in each volume).
Artist:John James Audubon (1785 - 1851)
Place of origin:USA
Category:Printed book
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