Great Auk - photo 1
Great Auk - photo 2

Great Auk

Sold
$ 4 410
Auction dateClassic
27.01.2023 10:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 887959
Lot 181 | Great Auk
AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851), after. – HAVELL, Robert (1793-1878).

Great Auk (Plate CCCXLI)
Alca impennis

"This species became extinct by 1844 due to relentless persecution by professional hunters ... Audubon wrote that he had never seen the bird, but that Robert Havell told him that his brother, Henry, on his way to New York prior to 1838, hooked a Great Auk on the banks of Newfoundland. The bird walked around the deck for a while and was then released. The annual migration of this bird was legendary ... [a] flock was observed [off Cape Fear, North Carolina] by ornithologists 86 days after it had left Iceland. It was a distance of 3000 miles, or 34.6 miles a day" (Low, p. 173ff). Audubon must have painted these birds from specimens in a British museum.

Engraving with hand-coloring, etching, and aquatint, on watermarked J Whatman paper dated 1836. 650 x 974mm sheet size, 25 1/4 x 38 inches. (Edge toning; a few spots including to sky at upper left and near wing of floating bird; light chipping at top edge.) Matted and framed.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
13.01.2023 – 27.01.2023
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

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