John James Audubon
Birds of America

 

The hand-colored lithograph plates below are cut from the first and second royal octavo editions of John James Audubon's justly celebrated The Birds of America : From Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories, published by J. T. Bowen of Philadelphia.  The first edition appeared in installments between 1839 and 1844 ; the second edition appeared with 1856  (with additional issues in 1859, 1860, 1861, 1870, 1871, and 1889).  The first and second editions differ in two chief ways:  (1) In the first edition, the backgrounds are hand-colored, whereas in the second, the backgrounds are printed, and (2)  In the first edition the attributions (at bottom of plate) are in italics, whereas in the second edition, the attributions are in block letters.  In both editions, the birds, botanicals, animals, insects, and most landscape elements are hand-colored .  The first edition was supervised by Audubon himself; the second by his sons.  Although the quality of the coloring varies both within and across volumes, many critics regard the coloring of the two editions as roughly comparable.

Size: Approximately 10.5 x 6.75 inches 

 jcorwin@classicnatureprints

AUD-B135

Yellow-Throated Vireo


1st Ed

AUD-B331

 

AUD-B31

 

AUD-B103