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Audubon's 'Birds of America' was published as a 'part work', financed by subscribers who bought each folio as it became available between 1827 and 1838; in all 435 coloured plates were published as 'elephant-folios' during that time. Later on a further 65 plates dealing with the birds of the American West were added making a total of 500 colour plates in all. Originally there were just 200 subscribers who each paid £187-10 shillings for the collection, but a further 100 sets of prints were issued at a later date. Audubon came to Edinburgh to have the first ten plates engraved by the firm of W.H.Lizars and Sons - which survives as a premier optician and optical company today. Complete copies of the Birds of America are now sold for sums in excess of £5 million (1999). America's National Audubon Society was founded in his honour in 1866 to conserve the wild birds of the USA.
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The originals for the plates were drawn and coloured by Audubon but engraved, printed and coloured by the English company of R. Havel & Son. Both Robert Havel and his son of the same name contributed to the engraving and colouring of the plates of this great work. |
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| Audubon's work was
criticised by later generations of ornithologists
because his paintings are more 'artistic' than 'scientific' but of
course,
he was the pioneer, and it is easy with hindsight to apply the values
of
ones own times to those of a former and find it wanting.
Audubon's works are certainly works of art, as much as they are ornithology, but whatever the label, they inspired a great movement to protect the birds of America and are loved the world over. Audubon persists as the giant of bird illustration. |
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