Pl. 59 Say's Flycatcher The Birds of America, by Audubon, John James - 1840-44.: from Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories

No. 12. Pl. 59. Say's Flycatcher
Male & Female on delicately leaved branch with insect.
*Note: Image shown in cropped detail. Actual print is unaltered with title*

A Fine original hand-colored lithograph on paper. 6.5 x 10.25 inches. Drawn from nature by J.J. Audubon, FRS FLS (Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Linnaean Society). Drawn on stone by Ralph Trembly. Lithographed, printed and colored by J.T. Bowen, Philadelphia for the First Royal Octavo Edition of John James Audubon's The Birds of America. Includes the text from Audubon's Ornithological Biography.

The Royal Octavo Edition represents John James Audubon's (1785-1851) desire to create an affordable work based on his magnum opus; the Double Elephant Folio Edition of The Birds of America. London: Published by the Author, 1827-38, with 435 engravings produced by William H. Lizars and Robert Havell, Jr. after Audubon's dramatic life-sized portraits of North American birds set in native foliage and surroundings. For this new Royal Octavo Edition, Audubon and his assistants drew 500 unique compositions inspired by the original engravings for the grand Double Elephant Folio Edition.
During the mid-nineteenth century, there were no photo-mechanical means of reproduction. To create a smaller format work, every composition was drawn by hand with the aid of the Camera Lucida. Each bird was now rendered according to species; and portrayed on a new botanical perch or landscape. With this new envisioning Audubon created a perfected composition: a charming vignette of the bird- or family of birds- in natural settings now sized to scale in the smaller format.
For the illustrations of the Royal Octavo Edition of The Birds of America, Audubon enlisted the talents of America's premier lithographers and printers: the JT Bowen and Company in Philadelphia and Endicott in New York. Each composition was drawn on a limestone tablet, inked and then printed. Once dried, the print of the bird and setting was faithfully handpainted in splendid array of lifelike tones.
In this smaller format Audubon presented ten unique compositions of birds recently discovered during his explorations into the American West, and not included in the Folio edition.
As with the Folio Edition, the Royal Octavo Edition was sold by subscription, and issued twice monthly between 1840 and 44; and contained 100 packets of five hand-painted lithographs of birds and their accompanying text: The Ornithological Biography which included Audubon's scientific and characteristic descriptions of the birds along with his observations of the robust beauty of the Early American landscape. True nature writing at its finest.
The popularity and success of the Royal Octavo Edition of Audubon's Birds of America is apparent from the production of seven edition; with the final edition issued in 1870 by George Lockwood, New York.
(Nissen 51, Sabin: H.2364, Tyler, Ron. Audubon's Great National Work. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. Wood, C.. An Introduction to the Literature of Vertebrate Literature. London: Oxford University Press, 1931.)Vertebrate Literature. London: Oxford University Press, 1931.)