by John James Audubon
Simply the most important book of birds ever made. For eighteen years from 1820, to the completion of the project in 1838, John James Audubon painted 435 plates, and then arranged to have them engraved and printed in the United Kingdom.
In order to display the birds in as lifelike a way as possible, the size of the original edition was enormous, 39.5″ by 28.5″, or double-elephant folio. The prints were issued in sets of five, with each set containing one large, one medium and three smaller plates.
Of the 200 or so copies originally produced, 119 still survive, and are some of the most valuable books in the world, with a complete first edition selling in December 2010 for £7,321,250.
The ebooktreasures version comes from the collection of the Natural History Museum in London, one of two in their ownership, and has been photographed using the latest digital technology to provide the highest quality images.
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