Beschreibung:

AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851). The Birds of America; from Original Drawings . London: Published by the Author, 1827-1838. "Double-elephant" broadsheets (954/968 x 631/650 mm). Engraved title-page for each volume and 435 hand-colored, etched and aquatinted plates, by William H. Lizars (Edinburgh), Robert Havell Sr and Robert Havell Jr (London), after Audubon's original life-size watercolor drawings, on J. Whatman and J. Whatman Turkey Mill paper with watermarks dated 1827-1838 (see Appendix B). First state of the title in volume I, containing 13 lines (before the addition of two extra lines listing Audubon's memberships to learned societies and without volume number). The plates in this set are arranged in order of publication (not by families) and numbered I-XVII, 18, XIX-XXII, 23, XXIV-XXXI, 32, XXXIII-LII, 53, LIV-LXXV, 76, LXXVII-CCCCXXXV.For a comparison of the states of the legends on the first ten plates in this copy with Waldemar Fries' listing of the variants, in his landmark monograph on the double elephant folio, see Appendix A. Two paper stocks were used throughout the production, both bearing the name of the English paper-maker James Whatman. William Balston, the apprentice and successor of the younger James Whatman, shared the rights to the old Whatman company and used the watermark "J Whatman"; the Hollingsworth family had the rights to the watermark "J Whatman Turkey Mill." The sheet size of the paper is known as "double elephant," measuring 39½ x 29½ inches, approximately the same size of the drawing paper that bears the same name. For watermarks in the individual sheets of this set, see Appendix B. THE PROVIDENCE ATHENAEUM SET OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF AUDUBON'S MASTERPIECE, THE FINEST COLOR-PLATE BOOK OF ORNITHOLOGY EVER PRODUCED BINDING HISTORY AND CONDITION The Providence Athenaeum's copy of Audubon's Birds of America was ordered unbound as loose sheets for exhibition purposes, through which the Athenaeum hoped to recuperate some (if not all) of the daunting subscription costs for the work. By 1847, the complete set of loose plates were bound in four volumes by the New York binder James Sinew at a cost of $60. In 1929, each plate was linen backed and the plates were rebound into eight volumes by F.J. Barnard & Co. of Boston at a cost of $1,208 (more than the original subscription cost). Most of the prints had been protected physically by the linen backing, but by the early 1990s there was growing concern for deterioration because of what appeared to be the animal glue adhesive which had darkened and could have discolored the reverse of each print. In 1995, the Athenaeum contracted the Northeast Document Conservation Center to remove each of the prints from their linen backing and conserving any defects using the highest archival standards. This project was completed in April of 1998 at great cost. The conservation project was extremely successful, and apart from a slight discoloration at edge extremes (predominantly in Vol.I) and some small abraded areas on some sheet versos, the linen-backing was imperceptively removed from the plates. Each print was matted by NEDCC in a window mat of 4 ply 100 ragboard with alkaline buffer, mounted using Japanese paper hinges and wheat-starch adhesive. Archival cover sheets have been placed between the window mats and the plates themselves. The matted plates are housed in 44 solander boxes custom built to size through University Products, Inc, of Holyoke, Mass. At the time of the de-lining, twelve plates and three title-pages were backed with RK29 japanese paper using wheat starch paste, as they had sustained earlier damage while bound. These prints tended to be those typically challenged at the beginning or end of a volume, and were creased and abraded, occasionally with slight loss. Through the earlier rebindings, the prints had been trimmed slightly. The sheet size was 38" x 25 1/4", which was slightly smaller than the original size. With some of the lar