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Bien
Edition of |
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| Seven
years after their father's death, Audubon's sons began an American Edition of Birds of
America with Julius Bien, a New York printer who was pioneering the field of
chromolithography. Bien transferred the images from Havell's copper plates onto
lithographic stones. Then, as many as thirty printing stages, with additional hand
engraving and coloring, were used to reproduce the subtleties of the original engravings.
Also of double elephant dimensions, these sheets represent one of the first successful
employments of the chromolithographic process and remain as one of its finest examples. The Bien edition, also to be sold by subscription, was begun in 1858. Production was brought to a sudden halt by the advent of the Civil War. Only 150 plates were ever completed. The Audubon family, unable to sell the edition or recoup their losses, found their fortune greatly diminished. Subsequently, Lucy Audubon sold 433 original paintings used for the Havell engravings to the New York Historical Society for $4,000. Today that collection would be priceless; many of the individual paintings are worth in excess of one million dollars. |
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