Lot 66: The 1860 edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America

AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES

The Birds of America. New York: V. G. Audubon, Roe Lockwood & Son, 1860. Fourth octavo edition. Seven volumes. Original blind-stamped brown morocco. 10 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches (27 x 17 cm); with 500 hand-colored lithographed plates under tissue guards by J.T. Bowen after drawings by Audubon, half-titles in volumes II and IV. . The spines lightly faded, nicked and with some scratches, some spotting tand toning to endpapers, a few plates loosening in volumes I and VII, marginal stain to lower extremitiy of some leaves in volume IV but not affecting plates, a fine set overall with clean plates.

The 1860 octavo issue of Audubon's Birds of America is rare as the text had been reset from the seven volumes of the 1840-44 royal octavo edition down to five volumes which were meant to accompany the 1860 folio edition being prepared by Julius Bien. Financial backing for the project wavered at the onset of the Civil War and production on the folio edition halted after the completion of only 150 plates. As a result, very few sets in seven volumes with all 500 octavo plates were assembled. For the plates in this edition, the first to be published by Lockwood, background tinting has been added to many previously plain plates and the tinting of several other plates has been altered to dramatic effect. Anker p. 19; Ayer/Zimmer p. 23; See Reese, Stamped with a National Character, 40.