The Birds of America, from drawings made in the United States and their territories. - The Quadrupeds of North America. (Royal Octavo Edition)
New York: George R. Lockwood, 1870-1871. John James Audubon, illustrator. Seventh (final) Octavo Edition of The Birds of America and fourth (final) Octavo Edition of The Quadrupeds of North America. Hardcover. Half green levant over marbled boards. Royal octavo. 10 x 6.75 inches. Two works bound as a set of 11 volumes, consisting of the seventh (final) Octavo Edition of The Birds of America in 8 volumes and the fourth (final) Octavo Edition of The Quadrupeds of North America in 3 volumes. Complete texts present: Audubon for The Birds, Audubon and Bachman for The Quadrupeds. Brief biography of John James Audubon, written by George R. Lockwood, included in Volume I of The Birds. Tinted, hand-colored, black-ink lithographic plates, 100 of birds and 31 of mammals, printed on thin cotton-rag paper. Please note: Only 100 of the originally issued 500 plates of birds, and 31 of the originally issued 155 plates of quadrupeds, are present. The remaining original plates were not included in this bespoke binding, a single plate having been selected from each original 5-plate Part. Plates placed in sequential order by Part number, proximal to respective text entries. Drawn, after art by J. J. and J. W. Audubon, by W. E. Hitchcock, R. Trembly, and others. Printed and hand-colored by J. T. Bowen of Philadelphia. Wood-engraved anatomical diagrams in text of The Birds. Uniformly bound in half green levant over marbled paper-covered boards with gilt single rule at junction of leather and paper. Six spine compartments with gilt-stamped titles and volume numbers, gilt-debossed bird device in remaining compartments, and gilt detail on raised bands. Top edges gilt. Marbled endpapers to match boards. Fore-edges of plates showing some original gilt. Bound with heavy paper stock in lieu of tissue guards. Incompletely trimmed pencil markings at upper right edge of some plates as an artifact of the binding process (indicating placement in the text block). Stiff binder’s blanks added to some volumes, affording greater uniformity of spine width across the set. The Birds: 8 v. ([2], viii, 246, [2]; [2], vii, 199, [18]; [2], viii, 233, [6]; [2], viii, 321, [2]; [2], viii, 346, [2]; [2], vii, 298, [2]; [2], vii, 285, [2]; [2], viii, 256, [6] p.). The Quadrupeds: 3 v. ([2], xv, xiv, [2], 382, [2]; [2], ii, 334, [2]; [2], v, 348, [2] p.). List of plates available upon request.
Condition: Very Good. Bindings solid, firm, and square. Plates bright, and sharp, with rich color. Spines sunned to natural color of leather (tail ends less so), with gilt lettering and details still sharp. Edgewear to boards, with tips worn through on most volumes. Scattered minor scratches and nicks to leather. Text pages very slightly age toned. Occasional foxing, reddish brown on binder’s blanks or dark brown (metal inclusion) on plates. Birds – Vol I: stripped area of marbled paper on rear board (see image) with discoloration to adjacent leather, light penciled writing on verso ffep; Vol III: damp effect waves through text block (see image); Vol IV: lower corners bumped; Vol V: 0.75-inch dog ear crack lower corner rfep (expertly repaired); Vols I, III, IV, V: cracking of endpapers in hinges.
John James Audubon and his sons, John Woodhouse and Victor Gifford Audubon, used a camera lucida to reduce the original double elephant folio images to a large octavo size to produce the lithographs for the royal octavo edition of The Birds (referred to by Audubon as the “petit edition” and “The Birds in Miniature”). The same method was employed by the sons to produce the images used for the royal octavo edition of The Quadrupeds. The text for the octavo Birds was adapted by John James Audubon from his “Ornithological Biography,” which had been offered separately in association with the original Double Elephant Folio. The text for the octavo Quadrupeds was written mostly by John Bachman with contributions from the aging John James Audubon and the assistance of Victor Audubon. The seventh edition of the octavo Birds and the fourth edition of the octavo Quadrupeds were the final editions produced, as, shortly after they were published, the lithographic stones were destroyed in a warehouse fire. The octavo editions were sold partly through subscription in 100 5-plate Parts (500 images), loosely bound and delivered, plus the original texts, in brown paper covers. Subscribers having received a volume worth of images and text would often have the Parts unbound and then trimmed and rebound as sets, sometimes The Birds and The Quadrupeds together. The octavo editions were also issued as many complete, bound sets. Ref: Steiner pp. 93-94, 108, 148; Clark/Bannon pp. 41-43, 73-76. The volumes offered here could have been issued either in Parts or in publisher’s original binding, then broken apart and selectively re-bound. Please note: This is an oversized or heavy item; additional shipping charges will apply. Very Good. Item #291
Price: $7,500.00