Beschreibung:

AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories . New York: V. G. Audubon/Roe Lockwood & Son, 1860. Fourth octavo edition. Seven volumes. Original blind-stamped brown morocco covers, the spines expertly rebacked and gilt lettered to match the original, all edges gilt, original marbled endpapers. 10 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches (27 x 17 cm); half-titles to vols. II & IV, 500 hand-colored lithographed plates under tissue guards by J.T. Bowen after drawings by Audubon. Some foxing to text and tissue guards, the plates generally clean but with occasional spotting, some chips to endpapers with one discreetly tissue backed, one plate missing a very small portion of the upper corner, some rubbing and neat repair to binding extremities, a few scratches to covers. The 1860 octavo issue of Audubon's Birds of America is rare as the text had been reset from the seven volumes of the 1840-44 royal octavo edition down to five volumes which were meant to accompany the 1860 folio edition being prepared by Julius Bien Financial backing for the project wavered at the onset of the Civil War and production on the folio edition halted after the completion of only 150 plates. As a result, very few sets in seven volumes with all 500 octavo plates were assembled. For the plates in this edition, the first to be published by Lockwood, background tinting has been added to many previously plain plates and the tinting of several other plates has been altered to dramatic effect. Anker p. 19; Ayer/Zimmer p. 23; See Reese, Stamped with a National Character, 40. C Property of a Long Island Collector