144 - Small Green Crested Flycatcher (Provenance: Queen Adelaide of England)
SKU:
HE-144
$9,000.00
$7,750.00
$7,750.00
per item
Hand-colored engraving with aquatint and etching. J Whatman Turkey Mill 1832 watermark. Excellent original colors.
Provenance: From the personal collection of Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (1792-1849). She was the Queen of England as the wife of King William IV (1765-1837) who ruled England for 7 years until his death in 1837. Queen Adelaide was the second subscriber of Audubon's Great Work, the "Bird of America (BOA)". This engraving came from an unbound set of the BOA (The Magnificent Sachsen-Meiningen Set), and retains the full dimensions of the Whatman paper, and pristine original colors.
Audubon wrote: "Perched on some small spray or dry twig, it stands erect, patiently eyeing the objects around. When it perceives an insect, it sweeps after it with much elegance, snaps its bill audibly as it seizes the prey, and on realighting, utters a disagreeable squeak. While perched it is heard at intervals repeating its simple, guttural, gloomy notes, resembling the syllables queae, queae, tchooe, tchewee. These notes are often followed, as the bird passes from one tree to another, by a low murmuring chirr or twitter, which it keeps up until it alights, when it instantly quivers its wings, and jerks its tail a few times. At intervals it emits a sweeter whistling note, sounding like weet, weet, weet, will; and when angry it emits a loud chirr."
Provenance: From the personal collection of Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (1792-1849). She was the Queen of England as the wife of King William IV (1765-1837) who ruled England for 7 years until his death in 1837. Queen Adelaide was the second subscriber of Audubon's Great Work, the "Bird of America (BOA)". This engraving came from an unbound set of the BOA (The Magnificent Sachsen-Meiningen Set), and retains the full dimensions of the Whatman paper, and pristine original colors.
Audubon wrote: "Perched on some small spray or dry twig, it stands erect, patiently eyeing the objects around. When it perceives an insect, it sweeps after it with much elegance, snaps its bill audibly as it seizes the prey, and on realighting, utters a disagreeable squeak. While perched it is heard at intervals repeating its simple, guttural, gloomy notes, resembling the syllables queae, queae, tchooe, tchewee. These notes are often followed, as the bird passes from one tree to another, by a low murmuring chirr or twitter, which it keeps up until it alights, when it instantly quivers its wings, and jerks its tail a few times. At intervals it emits a sweeter whistling note, sounding like weet, weet, weet, will; and when angry it emits a loud chirr."
1 available
144 - Small Green Crested Flycatcher
Hand-colored engraving with aquatint and etching
J Whatman Turkey Mill 1832 watermark
Havell Edition, Birds of America
Provenance: From the personal collection of Queen Adelaide of England
The Havell edition prints are considered as the most desirable of all of Audubon's original art work. During the period 1827 to 1838, Audubon produced the images for his monumental "The Birds of America" (BOA) with the assistance of engravers William Lizars of Scotland for the first few prints and then with Robert Havell, Sr and Jr., in England. These are copper plate engravings (435 plates) printed on high quality wove paper with a watermark (either J. Whatman or J. Whatman Turkey Mill, followed by the year). These plates (commonly referred to as the "Havell Edition") are known for the exquisite and unsurpassed beauty and details in the images, and the fresh vibrant colors. Audubon printed only a small number of the full sets of the BOA (between 175 to 200 copies). Most of these full sets are in museums, and a few in private hands, with only a few loose prints available for purchase by the general public. In the 19th century, some of the owners of these original prints, understandably given the time period and not anticipating how rare Audubon's Havell prints would become, did not pay the utmost attention and care in preserving these precious copperplate engravings; as a result, some prints got trimmed right down to the platemarks (to save on framing expenses), or got destroyed due to exposure to the elements (bleaching from exposure to bright sunlight, smog, smoke etc.), and didn't survive or retain the original pristine condition. The rarity of these Havell Edition prints becomes very quickly obvious especially when one is searching for a particular bird print - - they are very difficult to find indeed!
In the 2010 Sotheby's Auction, the Lord Hesketh 4-volume set of Audubon's The Birds of America sold for a record-breaking $11.5 million!
All the plates listed in this section are original full sheets with the Whatman watermark, unless otherwise noted in the description. Please ask for a detailed "Condition Report" for any particular print you might be interested in, before purchasing.
J Whatman Turkey Mill 1832 watermark
Havell Edition, Birds of America
Provenance: From the personal collection of Queen Adelaide of England
The Havell edition prints are considered as the most desirable of all of Audubon's original art work. During the period 1827 to 1838, Audubon produced the images for his monumental "The Birds of America" (BOA) with the assistance of engravers William Lizars of Scotland for the first few prints and then with Robert Havell, Sr and Jr., in England. These are copper plate engravings (435 plates) printed on high quality wove paper with a watermark (either J. Whatman or J. Whatman Turkey Mill, followed by the year). These plates (commonly referred to as the "Havell Edition") are known for the exquisite and unsurpassed beauty and details in the images, and the fresh vibrant colors. Audubon printed only a small number of the full sets of the BOA (between 175 to 200 copies). Most of these full sets are in museums, and a few in private hands, with only a few loose prints available for purchase by the general public. In the 19th century, some of the owners of these original prints, understandably given the time period and not anticipating how rare Audubon's Havell prints would become, did not pay the utmost attention and care in preserving these precious copperplate engravings; as a result, some prints got trimmed right down to the platemarks (to save on framing expenses), or got destroyed due to exposure to the elements (bleaching from exposure to bright sunlight, smog, smoke etc.), and didn't survive or retain the original pristine condition. The rarity of these Havell Edition prints becomes very quickly obvious especially when one is searching for a particular bird print - - they are very difficult to find indeed!
In the 2010 Sotheby's Auction, the Lord Hesketh 4-volume set of Audubon's The Birds of America sold for a record-breaking $11.5 million!
All the plates listed in this section are original full sheets with the Whatman watermark, unless otherwise noted in the description. Please ask for a detailed "Condition Report" for any particular print you might be interested in, before purchasing.
