Bird prints
Bird plates by eight naturalists, from Audubon’s life-size The Birds of America to Gould’s hummingbirds, Elliot’s pheasants and Levaillant’s parrots, first published between the 1740s and the 1880s. Each print is a facsimile giclée made from the originals, at the size of the original sheet, in a numbered edition of 250.
2,174 prints
Der Specht mit verguldeten Flugeln
$165
Carouge Jamacaii
$165
Blue Jay
$475
Red Jungle-fowl
$225
Puce-throated Hummingbird
$185
L’Ara Rauna
$195
De Gaai
$185
Musophaga (Schizorchis) Zonura
$235
Der amerikanische Birkhahn
$165
Cassique Huppé
$165
American White Pelican
$950
Ground-Hornbill
$165
Golden Eagle
$185
L’Ara Militaire
$195
Notenkraker
$185
Musophaga Albicristata
$235
Der amerikanische Rohrdomel mit dem Federbusch
$165
Colibri-Topaze
$165
Louisiana Heron
$475
Marquis Raggi’s Bird of Paradise
$225
Peacock Groove Bill Aracari
$185
L’Ara Tricolor
$195
Ringduif
$185
Musophaga Leucolopha
$235
Der bahamische Fink
$165
Colombe Cocotzin
$165
Trumpeter Swan
$725
Lesser Bird of Paradise
$225
Assam Peacock Pheasant
$185
Le grand Ara militaire
$195
Nest en Ei Ringduif
$185
Musophaga Leucotis
$235
Der blaue Hänffling
$165
Coracine Ensanglantée
$165
Mallard Duck
$725
Red Bird of Paradise
$225
Eagle Owl
$185
L’Ara Macavouanne
$195
Tortel
$185
Musophaga Macrohynchuo
$235
Der carolinische Seidenschwanz
$165
Cotinga Cordon-bleu
$165
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
$475
Green Manucode
$225
Great Brown Kingfisher
$185
L’Ara Maracana, mâle
$195
Blauwduif
$185
Musophaga Meriani
$235
About bird prints
Our bird plates cover more than a century of printmaking, and the technique changes with the period. The oldest are copper engravings: Johann Michael Seligmann’s German versions of the birds of Mark Catesby and George Edwards, published in Nuremberg from 1749 (one of them shows a dodo beside a guinea pig), and Cornelius Nozeman’s Nederlandsche Vogelen, begun in 1770. Between 1801 and 1806 Jacques Barraband’s paintings of parrots and toucans for François Levaillant were engraved in stipple.
The largest sheets are Audubon’s: Robert Havell engraved and aquatinted The Birds of America in London between 1827 and 1838, opening with the Wild Turkey. Most of the other books are lithographs, among them those of John Gould, who worked with a team of artists, and the monographs of Daniel Giraud Elliot, drawn by Joseph Wolf, Joseph Smit and John Gerrard Keulemans. What is The Birds of America? tells how Audubon’s book was made.