The Birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories

New York: V.G. Audubon, 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. Original publisher's full blindstamped brown morocco, spines with raised bands forming six compartments, blind tooled and lettered gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt

An exemplary copy in the publisher’s deluxe full morocco binding of Audubon’s Birds of America, second octavo edition, in outstanding condition.

The second octavo edition was the first to be published after Audubon's death, by his (truncated) 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. (Inventory #: 42246)