Oct 10, 2013 - Sale 2324

Sale 2324 - Lot 245

Price Realized: $ 2,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(NATURAL HISTORY.) Audubon, John James. Ornithological Biography, or an Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America. Numerous engraved illustrations in the text of the two final volumes. 5 volumes. 8vo, modern cloth; prospectus coming disbound, minor foxing; uncut, with all half-titles; library bookplates and release stamps on front pastedowns, pencil notes on title pages, inked numbers on verso of title pages, occasional embossed stamps within. Edinburgh, Scotland, 1831-39
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first edition. Audubon issued these text volumes as a separate work to accompany his double elephant folio set of Birds of America. It includes descriptions of the birds in all 435 plates, interspersed with charming anecdotes about American life bearing titles like "Kentucky Barbicue on the Fourth of July."
It was done as a separate publication for copyright reasons--the relatively inexpensive text copies could be filed at the requisite nine libraries, while the costly illustrations would not need to be filed. The 1831 prospectus for the Birds of America is bound at the end of Volume I. Howes A389 ("aa"); Low, Guide to Audubon, page 5; Sabin 2366.