John James Audubon

Brown Pelican /// Natural History Ornithology Bird Art John James Audubon Sea

1840-1844

Artist: John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) Title: "Townsend's Cormorant" (Plate 418, No. 84) Portfolio: The Birds of America, First Royal Octavo Edition Year: 1840-1844 Medium: Original Hand-Colored Lithograph on wove paper Limited edition: approx. 1,200 Printer: John T. Bowen, Philadelphia, PA Publisher: John James Audubon and J.B. Chevalier, New York, NY and Philadelphia, PA Sheet size: 10.13" x 6.5" Image size: 4.38" x 5" Condition: Light toning to sheet. Some light foxing and small areas of discoloration. Remnants of mounting tape from previous framing on verso. The white background was recently also hand-colored. In otherwise good condition with strong colors Notes: Provenance: private collection - Nashville, TN; acquired from a gallery in Nashville, TN. Lithography and hand-coloring by American artist John T. Bowen (1801-c.1856). Comes from Audubon's famous seven volume portfolio "The Birds of America", First Royal Octavo Edition (1840-1844), which consists of 500 hand-colored lithographs. Based on a composition probably painted in London in 1838, from a specimen obtained near the mouth of the Columbia River. Brandt's cormorant is a strictly marine bird of the cormorant family of seabirds that inhabits the Pacific coast of North America. It ranges, in the summer, from Alaska to the Gulf of California, but the population north of Vancouver Island migrates south during the winter. To make 'The Birds of America' more affordable and widely available, in 1839 John James Audubon began the first octavo edition, a smaller version of the folio which was printed and hand-colored by J. T. Bowen in Philadelphia. Employing a new invention, the camera lucida, the images were reduced in size, rendered in intermediate drawings by John James Audubon and his son John Woodhouse, and then drawn onto lithographic stones. These miniatures exhibit a remarkable amount of attention to quality and detail, as well as a meticulous fidelity to the larger works. Some compositional changes were made in order to accommodate the smaller format. Like the Havell edition, John James Audubon’s first...

Artist: John Gould (English, 1804-1881) Title: "Myzanthe Ignipectus (Fire-breasted Flowerpecker)" (Vol. 2, Plate 40) Portfolio: The Birds of Asia Year: 1850-1883 Medium: Original Hand-Colored Lithograph on wove paper Limited edition: approx. 235 Printer: Hullmandel & Walton, T. Walter or Walter & Cohn, London, UK Publisher: Taylor and Francis, John Gould, London, UK Reference: Anker No. 178; Nissen No. IVB 368; Sauer No. 17, Zimmer page 258; Wood page 365; Sitwell page 102 Sheet size: 21.38" x 14.57" Image size: 16" x 9.75" Condition: Light toning to sheet. Has been professionally stored away for decades. In excellent condition with strong colors Extremely rare Notes: Provenance: private collection - Aspen, CO. Lithography and hand-coloring by John Gould and English artist Henry Constantine Richter (1821-1902). Comes from Gould's seven volume "The Birds of Asia", (1850-1883) (First edition), which consists of 530 hand-colored lithographs. Other contributing lithographers were German artist Joseph Wolf (1820-1899) and Irish artist William Hart (1830-1908). "The Birds of Asia" was Gould's last work before his death. Gold gilded edges as issued. The fire-breasted flowerpecker is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Like other flowerpeckers, this tiny bird feeds on fruits and plays an important role in the dispersal of fruiting plants. Biography: John Gould FRS (14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist and bird artist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates that he produced with the assistance of his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, "On the Origin of Species".

'Echsen I' Lizards - chromolithograph from a German natural history series. Key to lizards below the image. Gustav Mutzel was a German artist famous ...

'Dendrolaugus Dorianus Dorianus' Tree kangaroo native of New Guinea. From 'On the Genus Dendrolagus' by Lionel Walter Rothschild and Guy Dollman, published in 'Transactions of the...