John James Audubon (Plate 324 American Oyster Catcher) The Birds of America. Philadelphia, 1840-44. $225.00

Plate 324 "The American Oyster Catcher Male”

John James Audubon is renowned for his elephant folio work entitled Birds of America, depicting every North American bird known at the beginning of the 19th century. It was a huge financial and time-consuming enterprise, based upon Audubon's watercolors, which were engraved and hand colored by Robert Havell. The book and its engravings are widely regarded as the finest bird portraits ever produced. The great size and complicated printing methods used to create the elephant folio prints were costly even at the time of publication and a very limited number were produced.
In response to popular demand, Audubon issued a smaller format edition of the work, known as the royal octavo edition (a reference to the paper size), more readily affordable to a wider audience. At the time of its publication a complete set (eight volumes) of the royal octavo edition could be purchased for $100. Today, a full set is priced from $30,000 to $125,000 based upon edition, condition and venue. We are pleased to offer these individual original first edition antique hand colored Audubon octavo bird prints for considerably less!

Lithograph, full original hand color, with accompanying text.
11 x 7 inches sheet.
Excellent condition.