J. J. Audubon & 19th century color printing

In 1826, the first hand-colored proofs of John James Audubon's double elephant folio edition of The Birds of America were pulled in Edinburgh, Scotland. His life-sized Wild Turkey was among them, transforming the 41 year old naturalist's "innate desire to acquire a thorough knowledge of the birds of this happy country" into a publication destined to bring international attention.

I 1826, the first hand-colored n proofs ofJohn James Audubon's double elephant folio edition of The Birds of America were pulled in Edinburgh, Scotland. His life-sized Wild Turkey was among them, transforming the 41 year old naturalist's "innate desire to acquire a thorough knowledge of the birds of this happy country" into a publication destined to bring international attention. Emigrating to America at age 18, Audubon had devoted all his spare time since he was 20 to depicting birds and their habitats in their "natural size and coloring" while suffering the failure of one business venture after another. A former partner in a trading company commented, ''Audubon had no taste for commerce and was continually in the woods." Unshaken by bankruptcy or the deaths of his father and two infant daughters during three previous years, the song of nature proved too strong for him and, at 34, Audubon answered his calling. Leaving his wife Lucy and their two sons with her family in Kentucky, he sailed down the Ohio River on a barge to paint exotic water fowl in the bayous near New Orleans. A year later Lucy joined him and worked as a Above. Belled Kingfisher. Below. Raven. Drawn from nature by J.J. Audubon. Lithographed and hand colored by J.T. Bowen. 1839·44. Used by pe rmission of University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections. Graphic Arts Journal J. J. Audubon teacher while Audubon traveled steadily for the next six years, sometimes with a young assistant who painted backgrounds, and always in the garb and demeanor of a gentleman backwoodsman with only a gun, his dog, a telescope, a journal and his painting kit. To support himself and his family during this period of field study, he taught drawing and painted portraits. Predominantly self taught, Audubon's technique relied on a creative combination of media-watercolor, graphite, pastel, oil paint, gouache, chalk, ink and collage­and natural gum or gelatin glazes applied to accentuate the play of matte and gloss in foliage and feather. At home in the unspoiled American outdoors, Audubon spent days observing birds and taking notes before shooting a model and posing its outstretched wings and crest in front of a grid used to accurately capture its likeness before its color paled in death. He was committed to capturing their images life-sized, requiring 3' x 2' paper for the largest birds (such as eagles, pelicans and swans) and head-down feeding postures for the leggy wading birds (herons and flamingo) ifhe were to fit them within the borders of the page. Audubon's commitment to accuracy in depicting ornithological specimens went on to define the dimensions of The Birds of America, the largest and most expensive book published up to that time. Unable to find an American printer willing to undertake the engraving, printing and coloring required to produce its 435 mammoth copperplates, Audubon set·sail for England to find the right printer, a two month sea voyage underwritten by Lucy's steady income and his own swimming, Century r Printing BY RAN DY S I LVERMAN dancing, drawing and French lessons. In Edinburgh, Audubon met noted engraver William H. Lazars who agreed to undertake the elegant book's printing, producing the first "number" (or issue) of five plates Audubon immediately used to pre-sell the remaining 96 numbers on a subscription basis. This method of monthly part-issue was a common strategy for marketing 19th century large-format illustrated books, as it provided the publisher with necessary cash flow to pay engravers, printers and colorists, while spreading out the cost to the subscriber over several years. However, Lazars' colorists went on strike for higher wages before the second number was completed, and Audubon was left with growing list of subscribers and nothing to deliver. This threat to the project forced him to renegotiate the commission with London printer Robert Havell, Sr., famous for his illustrated portfolios of picturesque views, who with his son Robert J r. became responsible for brilliantly "translating" The Birds of America, Audubon's mixed-media drawings, into colored prints. (Continued next page) 17 AUDUBON (Co7llillued from page 17) The method of copperplate etching employed by the Havells on Audubon's Birdswas aquatint, a printing process capable of producing subtle halftone effects in black ink. '1 'he exceedingly large copperplates were polished, evenly coated with powdered resin or asphaltum, and heated to melt the coating into globules that defined the plate's "grain." Audubon's images were subsequently transferred to the plate by an engraver using an etching point to scratch through the coated surface and expose the copper, A dam of bordering wax was then built up at the edges of the plate converting it to a tray into which dilute nitrous acid was poured to etch the exposed portions of the metal, Areas intended to print faintly were stopped out with an acid-resistant varnish while the darkest lines were "bitten" deeper with successive acid baths. The varnish and surface coatings were cleaned from the plate with solvents before printing, Next, the copperplate was vigorously inked with a dabber to work the viscous, hand-ground black ink into the finest lines of the image. '1 'he plate was then wiped with a canvas rag to remove unwanted surface ink and given a final polish with the printer's palm. Damped Whatman paper, 39 112" x 29 1/2", was placed on the face of the inked plate and the "plank" manually wound between the polished steel rollers of the roller press. Once printed, the sheet was removed to the drying house where it was pressed between felts and millboards in a room indirectly heated by coal stoves. Each of tlle 435 plates were hand water­colored- predominantly by women­who worked primarily in their homes. During the heaviest period of production, at least 50 colorists worked simultaneously on tlle Birds, methodically painting one color at a time until all of the 69,600 plates in the limited edition were finished. The double elephant folio cost Audubon $115,000 (equivalent to approximately $1,800,000 today] to produce from 1826 until 1838. While continuing his studies from nature, Audubon personally secured subscriptions from a wide range of monied collectors. Many of these were never completed due to various setbacks, including an economic depression, the deposition of Charles X of France, and the death of King George IV of England. However, a total of 160 subscriptions were completed-82 from America-at approximately $1000 per set, 18 or nearly $16,000 in modern currency, The first edition of The Birds of America netted the naturalist and painter approximately $24,200, equivalent today to $31,500 per year during the book's 12 year printing cycle, The production and sale of the double elephant folio established Audubon's reputation internationally, and paved the way for his publication of a smaller, more affordable version that included the text from his Ornithological Biography. The royal octavo edition (10 1/4" x 63/8") of The Bird, of America was begun in Philadelphia in 1839 by renowned lithographet John T. Bowen who labored over its printing until 1844. Havell's life­size images were reduced for the "little work" by Audubon and his son, James Woodhouse, using a camera lucida, a 19th century optical device that combined a prism and a microscope to transfer images trom one sheet of paper onto another. Bowen's lithographers retraced the image in brown pencil or chalk and rubbed the paper from the back to transfer it to a thick, grey Bavarian lithographic stone, Details in the image were drawn directly onto the stone with special wax, crayons and "fixed" with a wash of gum arabic and nitric acid. Thick, tacky ink was rolled over the stone's wet surface, adhering to the crayon but repelled by the water. A well­calendared lithographic paper was placed on the stone's inked surface in the press bed, and the bed manually rolled beneath the fixed pressure of the scraper blade. Lithography was much faster than engraving and rapidly replaced it for book illustration, Still, the octavo edition contained 587,410 individual plates that required hand-coloring 500 plates per set including several birds the wandering naturalist discovered since the printing of the first edition, Traveling broadly, Audubon and his commissioned agents sold a total of 1,050 sets of the "little wotk" at $100 per set. At age 59, the octavo edition of The Birds earned Audubon and his sons $31,360 [$491,000 in modern currency] for the five year project, monies used in part to build an estate in upper Manhattan, The catalysts for this windfall success, aside from Audubon's obvious talents as an artist, include a widely-held interest in depicted flora and fauna shared by the lay and scientific communities alike, as well as a growing middle class penchant to emulate aristocratic art collecting. The single-greatest factor, however, was Audubon's charm and charisma, which by all accounts were as deft as his brush stroke, His family's fortunes, tied to Audubon's energy and vision, faltered in his absence. John Woodhouse attempted to reissue the douhle elephant folio in 1858, seven years after his hther's death at 66. He chose to produce the new edition as a chromolithograph (color lithographs build up from multiple stones) to save on the cost of hand water-coloring and take advantage of the advances in color printing, despite the fact his [,mily owned the Birds copperplates, A deciding factor in his decision may have been the near collapse of the engraving trade, Lazar was dead as was Havell, Sr,; and Havell, Jr, had given up printing for painting, likely leaving no one else capable of undertaking the task. The chromolithograph edition of the double elephant folio was printed in New York by German-born lithographer Julius Bien, and advertised for $500 for the 400 plates-half the price of the original edition, However, the venture proved financially disastrous due to the outbreak of the Civil 'War, and only one volume of 105 plates was produced, In 1861, following the deam of her eldest son Qohn Woodhouse was to die the following year as well) and desperate for income, Audubon's widow offered his original drawings and copperplates from the double elephant folio for sale. The New-York Historical Society managed to raise $4,230 by 1863 and bought 464 drawings, but the economy was tight due to the War, Only four plates were purchased. The whereabouts of78 of me copperplates used to print The Birds of America are currently known, and saved by chance, and at the last moment, from me furnace that melted the other 357 into copper scrap. Naturalist, explorer, author, artist, and publisher-a man with nvo species of birds, nvo U.S, postage stamps and a national environmental society honoring him-J. J. Audubon was a romantic figure who cut a ;wath through history mat is larger man life, His drive to create "me greatest monument yet erected by Art to Nature," as the double elephant folio was described in his time by a prominent member obhe French Academy of Sciences, is a technical masterpiece at many levels, not the least being the magnitude of effort required to print its colored images for the masses during the 19m century, m September 1994