The Volumes:
The Birds of America is John James Audubon's masterpiece, a four-volume collection of 435 life-sized, hand-colored prints of North American birds, published between 1827 and 1838. Known as the "Double Elephant Folio" due to its massive size (nearly 40x29 inches), the work is celebrated for its stunning artistic quality, scientific accuracy, and detailed depictions of birds in their natural habitats, making it a landmark in both art and natural history. 

The Artist:
John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin, April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was a French-American artist, entrepreneur, naturalist, explorer, and ornithologist. Audubon is best known for The Birds of America, a book of 435 images, portraits of every bird then known in the United States – painted and reproduced in the size of life.

Its creation cost Audubon eighteen years of monumental effort in finding the birds, making the book, and selling it to subscribers. Audubon also wrote thousands of pages about birds (Ornithological Biography); he’d completed half of a collection of paintings of mammals (The Viviparous Quadrapeds of North America) when his eyesight failed in 1846.

His story is a dramatic and surprising one. Audubon was not born in America, but saw more of the North American continent than virtually anyone alive, and even in his own time he came to exemplify America – the place of wilderness and wild things. The history of his life reveals his era and his nation: he lived in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina and New York – traveled everywhere from Labrador to the Dry Tortugas off Florida, from the Republic of Texas to the mouth of the Yellowstone – was a merchant, salesman, teacher, hunter, itinerant portraitist and woodsman, an artist and a scientist. He was, in a sense, a one-man compendium of American culture of his time. And his growing apprehension about the destruction of nature became a prophecy of his nation’s convictions in the century after his death.

So it is that Audubon has been called “an archetypal American who astonishingly combined in equal measure the virtues of George Washington, Daniel Boone and Benjamin Franklin” and “the nearest thing American art has had to a founding father.”

The Edition:
In In 1985, to commemorate the 200th birthday anniversary of John James Audubon, the National Audubon Society together with the Abbeville Press issued a full facsimile of the double elephant folio The Birds of America using very fine quality color offset lithography. The Abbeville Press Edition was produced from the National Audubon Society's original double elephant folio, issued between 1827 and 1839.  Printed and published in Japan on watermarked Mohawk Superfine, which is an acid-free paper made exclusively for this edition. Only a total of 350 sets were published. These prints carry the watermark Audubon Society  Abbeville Press along the long edges. ​Commonly known as the Abbeville Edition, these prints are known for the exceptional quality of the images. The Abbeville edition is the 2nd full facsimile set of the BOA, after the Amsterdam edition.  The full sheets measure approximately 39 1/2" x 26 1/2".  

Condition:
A genuine Abbeville Edition Folio after Audubon's Havell original inaglio edition. Appears to be in excellent condition, no age-toning, possible minor typical antiquarian character or handling with  sheet this huge. Artifacts from having been bound into a giat volume along the left edge. Please peruse the photos & Description ~

These prints are old & may have imperfections expected with age, such as age-toning of the paper, spots, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.

Text Page(s):
This one comes without original page(s) of text. 

Size:
39-1/2 x 26-1/2 inches approximately.

Combined Shipping:
Yes! Multiple prints can be combine into one tube. eBay should auto-combine your items if you put all of your selections into your shopping cart & check out all together as one order.

If you purchase them individually, eBay charges shipping on each, which I then will need to refund after. If you're assessed multiple shipping charges for one combined package, I will endeavor to refund any overage asap. 

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