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John James Audubon
Long-billed Curlew (City of Charleston) /// Ornithology John James Audubon Bird

1840-1844

About the Item

Artist: John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) Title: "Long-billed Curlew (City of Charleston)" (Plate 355, No. 71) 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: 6.5" x 10.25" Image size: 4.88" x 9.25" Condition: Minor toning at edges. A few tiny spots of discoloration. In otherwise excellent condition with strong colors Notes: 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 painted in late October, 1831. Audubon and his assistant, George Lehman, were warmly received in Charleston, SC, and invited by the Reverend John Bachman to stay in his home, from which place Audubon made many important excursions. One such outing to the "Bird Banks" south of Charleston, where great flocks of long-billed curlews were seen, ended with a sumptuous picnic, with Audubon as the chef. They ate "fish, fowl and oysters" procured on the spot, "some steaks of beef, and a sufficiency of good beverage." Salt had been forgotten. Audubon wrote: "I soon proved to my merry companions that hunters can find a good substitute in their powder flasks. Our salt - was gunpowder, as it has been with me many a time; and to our keen appetites, the steaks thus salted were quite savory as many - cooked at home." The curlews, genus Numenius, are a group of nine species of birds, characterised by long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been influenced by the Old French corliu, "messenger", from courir, "to run". 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 octavo edition was sold by subscription and distributed in parts, five at a time. However, the octavo editions were issued in proper phylogenic, or species order. These prints also bear the plate number in the upper right-hand corner and the subscription number in the upper left. The first edition of approximately 1,200 sets was completed in five years from 1839 to 1844. A total of 500 images comprise the First Royal Octavo Edition. Biography: John James Audubon (April 26, 1785, Les Cayes, Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) – January 27, 1851 (aged 65) Manhattan, New York, U.S.), born Jean-Jacques Audubon, was an American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon identified 25 new species.
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