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 dreifarbige Distelfinck
$165
Cotinga Pacapaca
$165
Prothonotary Warbler
$350
Glossy-mantled Manucode
$225
Mute Swan
$185
L’Ara Maracana
$195
Kiekendief
$185
Musophaga Persa
$235
Der gehaubte Fliegenstecher mit gelben Bauch
$165
Courlis Rouge
$165
Purple Finch
$350
Keraudrens Manucode
$225
Hombron’s Kingfisher
$185
L’Ara gris à Trompe
$195
Nest en Ei Kiekendief
$185
Musophaga Porphyreolopha
$235
Der groste Specht mit dem weissen Schnabel
$165
Couroucou Oranga
$165
Canada Warbler
$350
Arfak Astrapia
$225
Haematornis Undulatus
$185
L’Ara noir a Trompe
$195
Merel
$185
Musophaga Rossae
$235
Der kleine braune Fliegenstechter
$165
Couroucou Rosalba
$165
Wild Turkey. Female and Young
$725
Six-plumed Bird of Paradise
$225
Falco Chicquera
$185
Tête del Ara noir à Trompe
$195
Wielewaal
$185
Musophaga Violacea
$235
Der kleinere Weisse Carolinische Reijger
$165
Céphaloptère-Orné
$165
Common Grackle
$475
Golden-winged Bird of Paradise
$225
Otus Bengalensis
$185
Perruche Ara pavouane
$195
Koperwiek
$185
Accoutrement de Fauconnerie I
$235
Der weisse Brachvogel
$165
Dacnis Bleu
$165
White-throated Sparrow
$350
Wilson’s Bird of Paradise
$225
Noctua Cuculoïdes
$185
Perruche Ara pavouane tapiré
$195
Lijster
$185
Accoutrement de Fauconnerie II
$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.