Birds, Audubon, Blue Grosbeak, Fringilla Coerulea, Bonap Male, Dogwood Cornus florida
John James Audubon – Blue Grosbeak, Havell Edition, 1836
“Blue Grosbeak, Fringilla Coerulea, Bonap. Male, 1. Female, 2. Young, 3. Dogwood Cornus florida”
From The Birds of America, First Audubon Edition / Havell Edition, 1827–1838
John James Audubon (1785–1851)
Copper engraving, printed and hand-colored by Robert Havell Jr., London
Watermark: Whatman 1836
Plate CXXII (122), N° 25
A superb large-format original plate from John James Audubon's Birds of America, depicting the Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea) with male, female, and young birds perched among flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).
This is from the celebrated first Audubon edition, commonly known as the Havell Edition, produced in London between 1827 and 1838. Audubon's original compositions were engraved and printed by Robert Havell Jr., whose technical skill and extraordinarily fine hand-coloring are central to the beauty and importance of this edition.
An Exceptional Example
The print is in the imposing double-elephant folio format, measuring approximately 82.8 × 65.8 cm (32.6 × 25.9 in.). Audubon's decision to depict birds at or near life size on sheets of this extraordinary scale was one of the defining features of Birds of America and contributed greatly to its status as one of the landmark publications of natural-history illustration.
The hand-coloring on this example is particularly beautiful, with fresh, bright colors and exceptionally fine execution. The delicate rendering of the Blue Grosbeaks, combined with the flowering dogwood, creates a striking and highly decorative composition.
Plate Details
Upper left: N° 25
Upper right: PLATE CXXII
Lower left, alongside title: Drawn from Nature by J.J. Audubon F,R,S.F,L,S.
Lower right, alongside title: Engraved, Printed & Coloured by R. Havell, London.
Watermark: Whatman 1836, upper left
The plate illustrates the Blue Grosbeak, a North American songbird of the cardinal family, together with flowering dogwood, an important native North American flowering tree.
Condition
The print is clean and presents very well. It retains unusually generous margins:
- Upper margin: 4.7 cm (1.9 in.)
- Right margin: 4.7 cm (1.9 in.)
- Lower margin: 6.0 cm (2.4 in.)
- Left margin: 5.0 cm (2.0 in.)
The margins had previously been folded back, apparently because the print had been stored in a folder that was too small. The folds are well away from the printed image and, following restoration, are not visible from the front. There were a few small tears associated with the folds, but none approaches the image.
The combination of exceptionally fine hand-coloring, strong color retention, large original format, generous margins, and the 1836 Whatman watermark makes this a particularly attractive example of an original Havell Edition Audubon plate.
Sheet size: 82.8 × 65.8 cm (32.6 × 25.9 in.)
More about the Blue Grosbeak:
https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america/blue-grosbeak
More information about this print on the Library of Congress website:
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002718974/
