ORIGINAL ENGRAVING AND AQUATINT OF BONAPARTE'S FLYCATCHER, AFTER JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. FROM THE DOUBLE ELEPHANT FOLIO (1824-1838),American, From John James Audubon's Birds of America, Paper watermarked, JWhatman. Plate #5 from The Birds of America, the finest visual record of native birds ever executed, by naturalist and painter John James Audubon. First published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838 in Edinburgh and London.
- 31" high x 22 1/4" wide. Estimate $400-600
NOTE: Audubon funded the costly printing project through a pay-as-you-go subscription. From 1826 to 1829, he travelled around the UK and to Paris, lecturing on ornithology and frontier American life in an effort to entice wealthy patrons to subscribe to the series of prints. Subscribers included Charles X of France, Queen Adelaide of Britain (wife of William IV), Earl Spencer, and, later, the Americans Daniel Webster and Henry Clay.
Prints were issued in sets of five every month or two in tin cases and each set usually included one very large bird, one medium-sized bird, and three small birds. In 1838, at the end of the thirteen-year project, 435 plates were distributed to each subscriber at a total cost of $870. Today only 120 complete editions are known to have survived – 107 in institution collections and 13 in private hands.
Trimmed from original full margins, toning and light foxing present. Some loss of paper to the bottom edge.
