The birds of America : from original drawings / by John James Audubon

Object Details

Author

Audubon, John James 1785-1851

Audubon, John James 1785-1851 Ornithological biography

Lizars, W. H (William Home) 1788-1859

Havell, Robert 1769-1832

Havell, Robert 1793-1878

Audubon, Lucy Green Bakewell 1788-1874

binding designer

Miura, Kerstin Tini

marbler

Miura, Einen

Author

National Audubon Society

printer

Toppan Insatsu Kabushiki Kaisha

Facsimile reprint. Originally issued in 87 parts: London : Published by the author, 1827-1838.

Imprint for facsimile edition taken from colophon of v. 4.

Dates of publication and distribution of plates for the individual volumes of the original edition: v. 1, plates I-C, [1827-1830]; v. 2, plates CI-CC, 1831-1834; v. 3, plates CCI-CCC, 1834-1835; v. 4, plates CCCI-CCCCXXXV,1835-1838, June 20.

"The plates were published without any text, to avoid the necessity of furnishing copies gratis to the public libraries in England, agreeably to the law of copyright."--Sabin, A dictionary of books relating to America, v. 1, p. 315.

The text to accompany the plates was published in 5 vols., royal 8vo., Edinburgh, 1831-1839, under the title "Ornithological biography, or, An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America ..." Later editions, of text and plates combined, with alterations, were published in 7 and 8 vols., royal 8vo., under the title "The birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories."

Each volume of the facsimile edition has a reproduction of the special engraved and illustrated dedication leaf that was inserted after publication in the original set: Presented by the Trustees of the Mercantile Mutual Insurance Company to Joseph Walker, late president of that institution ... New York 1853.

Plates I-II, VI-VII engraved by W.H. Lizars, retouched by R. Havell, junr.; plates VIII-IX engraved by W.H. Lizars; plates III-V, CI-CV, CVIII, CX engraved, printed and coloured by R. Havell, junr.; plates X-C, CVI-CVII, CIX, CXII-CCCCXXXV engraved, printed and coloured by R. Havell. Plate LXIV drawn from nature by Lucy Audubon.

Plates II, VII dated 1829; plates CVI-CX, CXII-CVX dated 1831; plates CXXXI-CXL, CXLIII-CLV dated 1832; plates CLVI-CLXXVII, CLXXIX-CLXXXII, CLXXXIV-CLXXXV dated 1833; plates CLXXXVI-CXCVII, CXCIX, CCII-CCXXXV dated 1834; plates CCXXXVI-CCLXXXV, CCLXXXVII, CCLXXXIX-CCXC dated 1835; plates CCLXXXVI, CCLXXXVIII, CCXCI-CCCL dated 1836; plates CCCLI-CCCC dated 1837; plates CCCCI-CCCCXXXV dated 1838.

Plate VI marked V; plate CCLIV marked CCLVI.

"This edition is strictly limited to 350 sets worldwide issued in either bound format or portfolio format. Each of these sets, completed in 1985, is signed by Russell W. Peterson, president of the National Audubon Society, and Robert E. Abrams, president of Abbeville Press, New York."--Colophon.

"This facsimile edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America was produced from the National Audubon Society's original double elephant folio, issued between 1827 and 1839. The color separations, printing, and binding were done by Toppan Printing Company of Tokyo, Japan. ... Tini Miura designed the bindings and endpapers. The hand-made endpapers were produced by Einen Miura."--Colophon.

The paper used for the facsimile edition is specially watermarked for the National Audubon Society.

Abbeville Press also issued a set of seven matched text volumes (five of them being Audubon's original commentaries of 1839, one being Roger Tory Peterson's 1981 updated commentaries on the plates reorganized in phylogenetic order, and the last being Walter Fries's bibliographic history of the double elephant folio) in the same style as this facsimile edition.

1985

1827

Call number

QL674 .A9 1827Xa

Type

Pictorial works

Physical description

4 v., CCCCXXXV leaves of plates : chiefly col. ill. ; 103 cm

Place

North America

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Birds

Record ID

siris_sil_921131

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0