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Early Editions of John James Audubon Prints
The First Edition—the Elephant Folio
The
Birds of America consist of 435 prints of 457+ species of birds.
The prints were issued in sets of five, between 1826 and 1838. Fewer than
175 folios of all 435 prints were completed.
The birds are portrayed life-size
on 29 1/2" x 39 1/2" paper. This paper size is called double elephant,
from which the first edition of The Birds of America derives
its nickname, the double elephant folio.
The London engraver, Robert Havell, etched Audubon's bird portraits and his assistants'
paintings of foilage and landscapes onto copper plates. Black and white
prints were made from the copper plates. The engravings were then water-colored
by hand.
The folio was completed on June 20, 1838, twelve years after the first
print had been engraved.
The Second Edition—the Octavo Edition
Several publications supplemented the textless Birds of America. The Ornithological Biography was written by Audubon and William MacGillivray, and published in five volumes between 1831 and 1839. It describes the behavior of the birds depicted in the engravings, and Audubon’s experiences hunting and observing them.
The text of The Ornithological Biography was reprinted in the second edition of The Birds of America between 1840 and 1844. Known as the octavo edition from its size, this smaller version was reprinted eight times between 1856 and 1871.
The octavo edition contained 500 hand-colored lithographs on pages measuring 6 1/2 x 10 or 10 3/4 inches.
Derivitive print
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