Original John James Audubon 1860 Bien Ed. PL 280 White-headed Pigeon

Description: Audubon wrote: "The White-headed Pigeon exhibits little of the pomposity of the common domestic species, in its amorous moments. The male, however, struts before the female with elegance, and the tones of his voice are quite sufficient to persuade her of the sincerity of his attachment. During calm and clear mornings, when nature appears in all her purity and brightness, the cooing of this Pigeon may be heard at a considerable distance, mingling in full concord with the softer tones of the Zenaida Dove. The bird standing almost erect, full-plumed, and proud of his beauty, emits at first a loud croohoo, as a prelude, and then proceeds to repeat his coo-coo-coo. " The Bein edition prints of the Birds of America were produced by the Audubon family (by Audubon’s sons John Woodhouse and Victor Gifford), and thus are properly termed originals. Unlike the Havell edition prints which were produced in England, the Bien Edition prints were produced completely in America. Thus, they are truly American originals. In 1858, about seven years after John James Audubon passed away, his younger son John Woodhouse Audubon initiated an ambitious project to reissue the Birds of America to solve some of the mounting financial problems. He recruited the Roe Lockwood Company in New York city to publish the works and Julius Bien for lithography. Unlike the Havells which were produced from copper engraving plates, Julius Bien utilized the newly emerging chromolithography process as a way of reducing the costs of production. Chromolithography utilized a set of printing stones (about 6 or more, carrying images transferred from the original copper-plate engravings), each with different color printed in register to layer the colors to produce the final colored image on paper. Some of the final prints were hand-colored in specific areas to enhance the image. The use of different stones occasionally resulted in very slight misregister of colors on the dark outlines of birds and background, thus serving as a charming reminder of chromolithography process. Larger images were printed on a single page as in the Havell edition, whereas smaller images were printed two per page. All the larger images as well as some smaller images carry the credit "Chromolithy by J. Bien, New York, 1860” (but some with years between 1858 to 1862). Thus these images are commonly referred to as the Bien edition plates. Unfortunately, the start of the Civil War in 1860 brought an abrupt end to this project (and a financial ruin to the Audubon family) after only about 105 pages were printed. It was said that about 100 copies of each page (with bird images) were produced, but most of them did not survive. The Bien edition prints are more scarce to find than the Havell edition prints. For an excellent introduction to the Bien edition, please see the books by Susanne M. Low and Bill Steiner. This print was purchased at Ackerman's Auction House located at 408South Michigan Ave, Chicago in 1929.

Price: 3200 USD

Location: Skokie, Illinois

End Time: 2024-12-11T20:19:30.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD