How to Identify Original Audubon Prints
(A Primer on the Authentication of Audubon Original Prints)
Often times, many collectors of Audubon prints notice the years like 1829 or 1835 etc., in the credits at the bottom right of the sheet and simply assume that they have an authentic original Audubon print from the 19th century! They may be unaware that the modern reproduction prints of originals also faithfully reproduce the original credit line including the year. In the following, we have put together a simple primer on how to authenticate original Audubon prints from the five different editions published by John James Audubon and his sons in the 19th century, viz., Havell and Bien Editions of the Birds of America, Imperial Folio Quadrupeds, Octavo Edition Birds, and Octavo Edition Quadrupeds (for more detailed criteria, the reader is referred to the excellent book by the noted Audubon scholar, Bill Steiner (see the books listed in the page about John James Audubon). Please also refer to the monograph "Identifying Audubon Bird Prints" by Robert Braun, published in 2001 by the American Historical Print Collectors Society).
(1) Havell Edition: (see our Havell Edition Gallery for more information)
These are copperplate engravings with etching.
(a) Sheet Dimensions: The original double elephant folio paper used had approximate dimensions of 39 ½” x 26 ½”. When they were bound, often there was some trimming in both dimensions as part of the binding process. Sometimes, some owners of individual prints might decide to trim off the small edge tears further (instead of having them repaired). Thus, in general, sheets with dimensions from ~37” to 39 ½” in length and 24” to 26 ½” in width are described as full sheets. To reduce the framing costs, many early collectors have often trimmed these original prints very close to the plate mark (unfortunately, this reduces the value of the print as well).
(b) Watermarks: The original paper used by Audubon and his engravers in the production of the double elephant folio edition of the Birds of America was manufactured by the venerable Whatman paper company in England. They exhibit the characteristic watermarks (either J Whatman or J Whatman/ Turkey Mill with the year (between 1826 to 1839) printed below). These watermarks are generally located parallel and close to the longer edge of the paper. A couple of examples are shown below (seen easily by illuminating the paper from underneath). The watermark is approximately 9" in length, with the first two letters J and W about one inch in height. Thus if the watermark is present, it is hard to miss (unless it is totally covered by some dark-colored areas in the image).
(1) Havell Edition: (see our Havell Edition Gallery for more information)
These are copperplate engravings with etching.
(a) Sheet Dimensions: The original double elephant folio paper used had approximate dimensions of 39 ½” x 26 ½”. When they were bound, often there was some trimming in both dimensions as part of the binding process. Sometimes, some owners of individual prints might decide to trim off the small edge tears further (instead of having them repaired). Thus, in general, sheets with dimensions from ~37” to 39 ½” in length and 24” to 26 ½” in width are described as full sheets. To reduce the framing costs, many early collectors have often trimmed these original prints very close to the plate mark (unfortunately, this reduces the value of the print as well).
(b) Watermarks: The original paper used by Audubon and his engravers in the production of the double elephant folio edition of the Birds of America was manufactured by the venerable Whatman paper company in England. They exhibit the characteristic watermarks (either J Whatman or J Whatman/ Turkey Mill with the year (between 1826 to 1839) printed below). These watermarks are generally located parallel and close to the longer edge of the paper. A couple of examples are shown below (seen easily by illuminating the paper from underneath). The watermark is approximately 9" in length, with the first two letters J and W about one inch in height. Thus if the watermark is present, it is hard to miss (unless it is totally covered by some dark-colored areas in the image).
Some of the early collectors have trimmed down the Havell edition prints drastically to the plate mark (primarily to save on framing costs, and occasionally to remove any damage (like tears) outside the plate mark), and in that process have trimmed the Whatman watermark too (thereby unwittingly and drastically diminishing the value of the print). Occasionally, depending upon the extent of trimming, one might come across Havell prints with a partial Whatman watermark still visible; for example, if the watermark is located at the binding edge of a print removed from a bound volume, an owner might trim off the uneven binding edge, thereby unwittingly trimming off the year as well.
(c) Hand-coloring: The original Havell edition prints were all skillfully hand-colored by highly experienced artists in the printing shop (William Lizars in Edinburgh and R. Havell & Son in London). When examined with a 10x or 15x magnifying jeweler’s loupe (or a similarly powered magnifying glass), the images do not show any dot-matrix pattern (e.g., see image below in (6)) characteristic of modern off-set lithography (such as the Amsterdam, Abbeville, Princeton, Ariel Press editions, etc). Often, one can see some overfills and underfills of the watercolor against the darker outlines (usually noticeable in leaves, grass blades, tree branches etc).
(d) Plate Marks: For the Havell edition, the original watercolor paintings by Audubon were transferred as engraved mirror images on to rectangular copper plates (often accompanied by etching and aquatint in the process). These copper plates (after inking) were pressed against the double elephant folio paper in a press to transfer the image to the paper, which was then hand-colored by the skilled artists mentioned above. This pressing of the copper plate against the paper in a heavy press resulted in rectangular plate marks (for an example, see Plate 74 - Indigo Bird in the Havell Edition Gallery). The precise dimensions of these rectangular plate marks for each of the 435 images have been recorded (e.g., see Christie’s 2004 catalog “The Magnificent Sachsen-Meiningen Set of Audubon’s The Birds of America” and Susanne Low's 2002 book "A Guide to Audubon's Birds of America"). If the plate mark dimensions do not match the listed dimensions of the plate marks for the original Havell prints (within ~1/8", to allow for possible expansion/contraction of the paper over the years), they are not originals (e.g., some of the facsimile edition prints have false plate marks, to mimic the appearance of the Havell edition prints. But the dimensions of these false plate marks are usually slightly different from the authentic plate mark dimensions).
(e) Paper: Hand-made wove paper. The untrimmed paper also shows the characteristic watermark mentioned above in (b).
(f) Credits: The credits at the bottom left of the original Havell edition engravings are always to the senior Audubon (except Plate # 64, Swamp Sparrow, where Audubon listed his wife Lucy Audubon as the artist, to express his gratitude for her unfailing support to his ambitious project), and on the bottom right to the engravers (Havell, or Lizars, or some times to both on the first 10 plates). If any additional credit text is found at the bottom, they are clearly not the originals (e.g., with credits to the Collection of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, or Artistic Picture Publishing (or A.P. P.), or Collection of Milwaukee Public Library, etc.).
(2) Bien Edition: (see our Bien Edition Gallery for more information).
Audubon’s younger son, John Woodhouse, wanted to issue a second printing of their father’s famous Birds of America consisting of hand-colored engravings with etching. However, to reduce the costs, he opted to use newly emerging technique of chromolithography and recruited Julius Bien, a foremost expert in this style of printing.
(a) Sheet Dimensions: Sheets with large images have similar dimensions as the full sheets of Havell edition prints (i.e., ~ 39 ½” x 26 ½”), and sometimes may be slightly larger. However, the smaller images were printed two per sheet (either top and bottom vertically, or side-by-side horizontally). A typical example of an original Bien edition print with two images vertically is shown in our Bien edition gallery. Many of these sheets were cut in half by collectors to separate the two images (for framing them individually), thereby resulting in some Bien edition prints with half the dimensions of a full sheet.
(b) Marginalia at the Top and Bottom: The credits at lower right of the full sheet will typically read “Chromolithy J. Bien, New York” followed by the year (any where between 1858 to 1862). The Credits at the lower left of the full sheet will be to Audubon. However, if the sheets with two images were cut in half, depending upon whether they are horizontal or vertical images, the credits could be missing (e.g., in the top image in a sheet cut horizontally) or have either a credit only to Audubon (left image in a sheet cut vertically) or to Bien (right image). If there are any additional credits below, they are 20th century reproductions.
(c) Images: The chromolithography process consisted of transferring the original outline of a Havell edition image onto printing stones (anywhere from 6 to 20) with each stone colored with a unique color, and then pressed onto the paper in register. Thus these Bien edition images do not show any dot-matrix pattern when viewed with 10x or 15x magnification loupe. Often, some of the prints were finished by hand with watercolors to accentuate certain portions of the image areas.
(d) Paper: Many of the Bien edition images were printed on wood-pulp paper (instead of the J Whatman wove paper in the Havell edition). Over time, this paper became brittle (due to acidification from the residual wood pulp) and it is not uncommon to see Bien edition Audubon prints backed by japan paper or linen to stabilize them from tearing up and chipping. Coming across the original Bien edition prints without such backing is very rare indeed. Our gallery lists several of these rare Bien edition originals without such backing.
(3) Imperial Folio Edition of the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America:
(see our Imperial Folio Edition Gallery for more information):
(a) Sheet Dimensions: Approximately 28” x 22” on wove paper. When the prints were bound into volumes, there might be some trimming in both dimensions. In addition, some early collectors have trimmed the sheets slightly for framing purposes.
(b) Images: The images were printed by stone lithography and each image was hand-colored by highly skilled colorists in the Bowen shop in Philadelphia. There will be no dot-matrix pattern on the image when viewed with a 10x or 15x magnification loupe.
(c) Paper: Heavy stock light-cream cotton rag paper. There is no watermark.
(d) Credits: The artist credit at the bottom left is either to J. J. Audubon or to J. W. Audubon. The printer's credit at the bottom right is to J. T. Bowen. If there are additional credits at the bottom or a stamp verso with the initials SZL, it is likely to be a reproduction (there were some hand-colored reproductions in the 20th century).
(4) Octavo Edition Birds:
(see our Octavo Edition Birds Gallery for more information)
(a) Size: The octavo edition bird prints are typically around 6 ½” x 10” in size.
(b) Images: The images were printed as black and white (from Havell prints using Camera Lucida) on cotton-rag paper by stone lithography, followed by skillful hand-coloring of each image. There is no dot-matrix pattern.
(c) First Edition vs. Later Editions: The first edition bird prints do not have a background color (with the exception of three plates which have a background color: 19-Iceland-Jer Falcon, 28-Snowy Owl, and 34-Barn Owl). The second and later editions have a second-stone tint for the background (except those with landscape backgrounds). In the First edition, plates 1-150, and 186-189 carry credits at the bottom in block letters; all the remaining plates carry credits in italic letters. All other editions have the credits at the bottom in block letters. In the first edition, for plates 136-150, the credit at the bottom right reads "Endicott, New York". All other prints have a credit to "Bowen, Philadelphia".
For additional criteria in distinguishing the editions, the reader is referred to the excellent books by Audubon scholars Bill Steiner and Ron Tyler (see the books listed in the page about John James Audubon), and to the 2001 monograph by Robert Braun (see the first paragraph above).
(5) Octavo Edition Quadrupeds:
(see our Octavo Edition Quadrupeds Gallery for more information)
(a) Size: The octavo edition prints are typically around 6 ½” x 10” in size.
(b) Images: The images were printed as black and white (from the Imperial Folio using Camera Lucida) on cotton-rag paper by stone lithography, followed by skillful hand-coloring of each image. There is no dot-matrix pattern.
(c) First Edition vs. Later Editions: Usually it is very difficult to tell the first editions from later editions once the prints are separated out of the bound volumes. One exception is that the first 30 or so plates of the first edition carry a credit to Nagel and Weingaertner on the lower right (a credit to Bowen in Philadelphia appears in all the remaining first edition prints and on all prints in later editions).
(6) Restrikes, Fine Facsimile Prints, and Reproductions:
These are not originals.
(a) Restrikes of Double Elephant Folio Birds:
These are restrikes pulled in the 20th century from a few surviving original 19th century copper plates used in the production of the Birds of America. They lack the J Whatman watermark of the original Havell edition prints but show the platemark impression from the copper plate. A couple of examples are shown in the gallery "Audubon Restrikes and Fine Facsimiles - 20th Century".
(b) High-quality Facsimile Offset Lithographs of Havell Edition Birds (Amsterdam, Abbeville, Princeton, etc):
These are precise copies of the original Audubon Havell edition prints from the 19th century, but made by offset lithography. They match the Havell edition prints (sheet dimensions, image, marginalia letters including credits). Since these are modern prints, they lack the J Whatman watermark on the paper. For identifying these fine facsimiles printed by offset lithography, please visit the corresponding pages for Amsterdam, Abbeville and Princeton edition prints in the gallery "Audubon Restrikes and Fine Facsimiles - 20th Century". When examined with a magnifying glass or a jeweler's loupe with a 10x or 15x magnification, the offset lithographs exhibit a characteristic dot-matrix pattern. A typical example of a dot-matrix pattern is shown in the highly enlarged image below. There are a few other facsimile prints also like those from the Leipzig edition which are printed by collotype technique (they do not show the characteristic dot-matrix pattern, thus some times causing confusion).
(c) Hand-coloring: The original Havell edition prints were all skillfully hand-colored by highly experienced artists in the printing shop (William Lizars in Edinburgh and R. Havell & Son in London). When examined with a 10x or 15x magnifying jeweler’s loupe (or a similarly powered magnifying glass), the images do not show any dot-matrix pattern (e.g., see image below in (6)) characteristic of modern off-set lithography (such as the Amsterdam, Abbeville, Princeton, Ariel Press editions, etc). Often, one can see some overfills and underfills of the watercolor against the darker outlines (usually noticeable in leaves, grass blades, tree branches etc).
(d) Plate Marks: For the Havell edition, the original watercolor paintings by Audubon were transferred as engraved mirror images on to rectangular copper plates (often accompanied by etching and aquatint in the process). These copper plates (after inking) were pressed against the double elephant folio paper in a press to transfer the image to the paper, which was then hand-colored by the skilled artists mentioned above. This pressing of the copper plate against the paper in a heavy press resulted in rectangular plate marks (for an example, see Plate 74 - Indigo Bird in the Havell Edition Gallery). The precise dimensions of these rectangular plate marks for each of the 435 images have been recorded (e.g., see Christie’s 2004 catalog “The Magnificent Sachsen-Meiningen Set of Audubon’s The Birds of America” and Susanne Low's 2002 book "A Guide to Audubon's Birds of America"). If the plate mark dimensions do not match the listed dimensions of the plate marks for the original Havell prints (within ~1/8", to allow for possible expansion/contraction of the paper over the years), they are not originals (e.g., some of the facsimile edition prints have false plate marks, to mimic the appearance of the Havell edition prints. But the dimensions of these false plate marks are usually slightly different from the authentic plate mark dimensions).
(e) Paper: Hand-made wove paper. The untrimmed paper also shows the characteristic watermark mentioned above in (b).
(f) Credits: The credits at the bottom left of the original Havell edition engravings are always to the senior Audubon (except Plate # 64, Swamp Sparrow, where Audubon listed his wife Lucy Audubon as the artist, to express his gratitude for her unfailing support to his ambitious project), and on the bottom right to the engravers (Havell, or Lizars, or some times to both on the first 10 plates). If any additional credit text is found at the bottom, they are clearly not the originals (e.g., with credits to the Collection of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, or Artistic Picture Publishing (or A.P. P.), or Collection of Milwaukee Public Library, etc.).
(2) Bien Edition: (see our Bien Edition Gallery for more information).
Audubon’s younger son, John Woodhouse, wanted to issue a second printing of their father’s famous Birds of America consisting of hand-colored engravings with etching. However, to reduce the costs, he opted to use newly emerging technique of chromolithography and recruited Julius Bien, a foremost expert in this style of printing.
(a) Sheet Dimensions: Sheets with large images have similar dimensions as the full sheets of Havell edition prints (i.e., ~ 39 ½” x 26 ½”), and sometimes may be slightly larger. However, the smaller images were printed two per sheet (either top and bottom vertically, or side-by-side horizontally). A typical example of an original Bien edition print with two images vertically is shown in our Bien edition gallery. Many of these sheets were cut in half by collectors to separate the two images (for framing them individually), thereby resulting in some Bien edition prints with half the dimensions of a full sheet.
(b) Marginalia at the Top and Bottom: The credits at lower right of the full sheet will typically read “Chromolithy J. Bien, New York” followed by the year (any where between 1858 to 1862). The Credits at the lower left of the full sheet will be to Audubon. However, if the sheets with two images were cut in half, depending upon whether they are horizontal or vertical images, the credits could be missing (e.g., in the top image in a sheet cut horizontally) or have either a credit only to Audubon (left image in a sheet cut vertically) or to Bien (right image). If there are any additional credits below, they are 20th century reproductions.
(c) Images: The chromolithography process consisted of transferring the original outline of a Havell edition image onto printing stones (anywhere from 6 to 20) with each stone colored with a unique color, and then pressed onto the paper in register. Thus these Bien edition images do not show any dot-matrix pattern when viewed with 10x or 15x magnification loupe. Often, some of the prints were finished by hand with watercolors to accentuate certain portions of the image areas.
(d) Paper: Many of the Bien edition images were printed on wood-pulp paper (instead of the J Whatman wove paper in the Havell edition). Over time, this paper became brittle (due to acidification from the residual wood pulp) and it is not uncommon to see Bien edition Audubon prints backed by japan paper or linen to stabilize them from tearing up and chipping. Coming across the original Bien edition prints without such backing is very rare indeed. Our gallery lists several of these rare Bien edition originals without such backing.
(3) Imperial Folio Edition of the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America:
(see our Imperial Folio Edition Gallery for more information):
(a) Sheet Dimensions: Approximately 28” x 22” on wove paper. When the prints were bound into volumes, there might be some trimming in both dimensions. In addition, some early collectors have trimmed the sheets slightly for framing purposes.
(b) Images: The images were printed by stone lithography and each image was hand-colored by highly skilled colorists in the Bowen shop in Philadelphia. There will be no dot-matrix pattern on the image when viewed with a 10x or 15x magnification loupe.
(c) Paper: Heavy stock light-cream cotton rag paper. There is no watermark.
(d) Credits: The artist credit at the bottom left is either to J. J. Audubon or to J. W. Audubon. The printer's credit at the bottom right is to J. T. Bowen. If there are additional credits at the bottom or a stamp verso with the initials SZL, it is likely to be a reproduction (there were some hand-colored reproductions in the 20th century).
(4) Octavo Edition Birds:
(see our Octavo Edition Birds Gallery for more information)
(a) Size: The octavo edition bird prints are typically around 6 ½” x 10” in size.
(b) Images: The images were printed as black and white (from Havell prints using Camera Lucida) on cotton-rag paper by stone lithography, followed by skillful hand-coloring of each image. There is no dot-matrix pattern.
(c) First Edition vs. Later Editions: The first edition bird prints do not have a background color (with the exception of three plates which have a background color: 19-Iceland-Jer Falcon, 28-Snowy Owl, and 34-Barn Owl). The second and later editions have a second-stone tint for the background (except those with landscape backgrounds). In the First edition, plates 1-150, and 186-189 carry credits at the bottom in block letters; all the remaining plates carry credits in italic letters. All other editions have the credits at the bottom in block letters. In the first edition, for plates 136-150, the credit at the bottom right reads "Endicott, New York". All other prints have a credit to "Bowen, Philadelphia".
For additional criteria in distinguishing the editions, the reader is referred to the excellent books by Audubon scholars Bill Steiner and Ron Tyler (see the books listed in the page about John James Audubon), and to the 2001 monograph by Robert Braun (see the first paragraph above).
(5) Octavo Edition Quadrupeds:
(see our Octavo Edition Quadrupeds Gallery for more information)
(a) Size: The octavo edition prints are typically around 6 ½” x 10” in size.
(b) Images: The images were printed as black and white (from the Imperial Folio using Camera Lucida) on cotton-rag paper by stone lithography, followed by skillful hand-coloring of each image. There is no dot-matrix pattern.
(c) First Edition vs. Later Editions: Usually it is very difficult to tell the first editions from later editions once the prints are separated out of the bound volumes. One exception is that the first 30 or so plates of the first edition carry a credit to Nagel and Weingaertner on the lower right (a credit to Bowen in Philadelphia appears in all the remaining first edition prints and on all prints in later editions).
(6) Restrikes, Fine Facsimile Prints, and Reproductions:
These are not originals.
(a) Restrikes of Double Elephant Folio Birds:
These are restrikes pulled in the 20th century from a few surviving original 19th century copper plates used in the production of the Birds of America. They lack the J Whatman watermark of the original Havell edition prints but show the platemark impression from the copper plate. A couple of examples are shown in the gallery "Audubon Restrikes and Fine Facsimiles - 20th Century".
(b) High-quality Facsimile Offset Lithographs of Havell Edition Birds (Amsterdam, Abbeville, Princeton, etc):
These are precise copies of the original Audubon Havell edition prints from the 19th century, but made by offset lithography. They match the Havell edition prints (sheet dimensions, image, marginalia letters including credits). Since these are modern prints, they lack the J Whatman watermark on the paper. For identifying these fine facsimiles printed by offset lithography, please visit the corresponding pages for Amsterdam, Abbeville and Princeton edition prints in the gallery "Audubon Restrikes and Fine Facsimiles - 20th Century". When examined with a magnifying glass or a jeweler's loupe with a 10x or 15x magnification, the offset lithographs exhibit a characteristic dot-matrix pattern. A typical example of a dot-matrix pattern is shown in the highly enlarged image below. There are a few other facsimile prints also like those from the Leipzig edition which are printed by collotype technique (they do not show the characteristic dot-matrix pattern, thus some times causing confusion).
Dot-matrix pattern
(c) Modern Giclee Facsimile Prints :
The giclee facsimile print is made from a high-resolution digital scan of an original 19th century Audubon print (Havell, Bien, and Imperial Folio editions) and printed using very high quality ink-jet printers with 7 or 9 colors and 720 or 1440 DPI (dots per inch). They do not exhibit the dot-matrix pattern characteristic of offset lithography (see above), thus occasionally causing confusion among serious collectors of original antique prints. The cotton rag paper used for this giclee printing, though of high quality, will look very new and doesn't show the typical age (and blemishes) of the nearly 190 year old Havell (or 175 year old Imperial folio) original prints. Since the digital scan of an original Havell print (or Imperial folio print) also captures the color of the original antique paper (i.e., in the uncolored areas in the front) which is then printed on one side of the new cotton rag paper, the color of the uncolored portions of the paper in the front vs. the verso can show differences in color, easily identifying the giclee print. In the case of giclee reproductions of original Havell edition double elephant folio bird prints, the paper will obviously lack the J Whatman watermark that is characteristic of the 19th century originals. Most publishers add a credit or an embossed seal on the giclee print to make it easy to identify them as a reproduction. Finally, when examined with a 10X or 15X magnification loupe, the coloring on the image in the giclee print does not quite show the finish of the hand-coloring of the 19th century originals.
(d) Reproductions of Audubon Prints:
Reproductions of Audubon prints are not exact facsimiles of the original Audubon print, i.e., they do not capture the original matrix. Thus, they can have differences in the image details, image and paper dimensions, and marginalia letters from the Audubon original prints. The double elephant folio size Audubon bird prints from the Institute de France edition and the Loates edition (by M. Bernald Loates in Canada) are two of the better known reproductions because of their very high quality. But a vast majority of the reproductions (many with dot-matrix pattern) tend to be of only decorative value.
©2019 antiqueaudubon.com
