AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851) and John BACHMAN (1790-1874). The Birds of America. [With:] The Quadrupeds of North America. New York: George R. Lockwood, [1870].

2 works in 11 volumes, royal 8vo (279 x 191 mm). 655 HAND-LITHOGRAPHED PLATES (500 of birds and 155 of mammals) after Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock, R. Twebly, printed and hand finished by J.T. Bowen. Publisher's deluxe? half morocco gilt, spines in 6 compartments with 5 raised bands, gilt-lettering in 2, others gilt (several covers detached but present, old repairs to spines).

Later edition. THE LAST EDITION OF AUDBON'S BIRDS AND QUADS. Audubon’s double-elephant folio edition of The Birds of America (1827-1838) established his reputation as the greatest ornithological artist of his time. Though that edition was published in London to ensure the quality of the plates, he employed the Philadelphia firm of J. T. Bowen to produce this more commercially viable octavo edition under the close supervision of his sons. The original subscription price was $100, and its commercial success granted Audubon financial security. The octavo edition adds 65 new images for a total of 500 plates, making it “the most extensive color plate book produced in America up to that time” (Reese). George Lockwood bound the Birds in eight, rather than seven, volumes and printed the plates whenever possible from the same stone and stereotype plates made in the 1840s and 1850s. The Lockwood edition represents the last octavo edition printed from the original stones; they were destroyed sometime after 1870 in a warehouse fire in Philadelphia (see Tyler, Audubon's Great National Work, pp. 129, 165).

The first edition of The Quadrupeds of North America was issued in 1849 as a response to the success of a similar octavo edition of The Birds of America but with the declining health of John J. Audubon, only being able to sketch about half of the animals that were included in the final publication, his son took over and was able to finish the remainder of the drawings with most of the scientific detail included in the text that written by Bachman. The edition was published later than the copyright date of 1849 but before the edition was published with a preface signed by Lockwood as publisher and dated 1870.

A TALL COPY. This set is over half an inch taller and nearly an inch wider than those seen in the publisher's deluxe morocco which explains the plates being a bit shorter than the text. References for the first Birds octavo edition: Ayer/Zimmer, p.22; Bennett, p.5; McGill/Wood, p.208; Nissen IVB 51; Reese, American Color Plate Books 34; Reese, Stamped with a National Character 35; Sabin 2364. References for the first Quadrupeds octavo edition: Bennett, p.5; Meisel, III: p.440; Nissen ZBI 162; Reese, Stamped with a National Character 38; Sabin 2368; Wood, p.208.

AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851) and John BACHMAN (1790-1874). The Birds of America. [With:] The Quadrupeds of North America. New York: George R. Lockwood, [1870].

AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851) and John BACHMAN (1790-1874). The Birds of America. [With:] The Quadrupeds of North America. New York: George R. Lockwood, [1870].