after John James Audubon
This is a rare uncolored proof of Plate VI Wild Turkey (Female and Young) from the Havell Edition (or Double Elephant Folio) of The Birds of America.
The impression is on J WHATMAN TURKEY MILL paper and appears to be closer to later states of the plate as described by two important references. The print has an interesting misprint in the part number, an Arabic numeral "11" that is crossed out and replaced with an Arabic numeral "2" written in graphite. Earlier variants of the Turkey plate show a Roman numeral "II" in the part number. This may provide a partial explanation for the error, since an Arabic "11" looks very much like a Roman "II."
The plate of the female turkey was originally the work of the Scottish printer W. H. Lizars, who was responsible for the initial etching and engraving on the first ten copper plates. Audubon replaced Lizars summer 1827 with the London establishment of Robert Havell & Son. The principals were both named Robert Havell, one styled Senior, the other Junior until the elder Havell's death in 1832.
The younger Robert Havell took responsibility for etching and engraving the plates from the beginning. As part of the transition process, Havell reworked some of the first ten copper plates including the female turkey.
We reviewed two important references, Susanne Low's A GUIDE TO AUDUBON'S BIRDS OF AMERICA (New Haven: William Reese Co. and Donald Heald, 2002) and the THE DOUBLE ELEPHANT FOLIO by Waldemar Fries (Chicago: American Library Association, 1973), for information on known states for the female turkey. Low lists four states, while Fries lists three, some of which overlap. These states can be summarized in terms of differences in nomenclature, title, and image, none of which exactly match our impression, although our print is consistent with the evolution of the impression that can be pieced together through Fries' and Low's work. It is a matter of guesswork, deciding when subtle differences were introduced or removed. Low and Fries emphasize different factors, and of course either may have made the occasional error in transcription.
The earliest state (given by both Fries and Low) can be summarized as follows:
This is the only state described in these references that exclude changes by the younger Robert Havell. Subsequent states reflect the addition of aquatint -- an etching technique that allows subtle shades of grey -- to the copper plate, plus the famous addition of a snail that is being contemplated as a potential meal by two of the turkey chicks. Both the snail and aquatint can be found in our impression of the plate.
Havell modified the printer's credit to reflect his retouching of the plate in 1829. Generally, the second and later states show the following or similar text, with earlier prints (predating his retirement in 1830) showing a coloring credit for Robert Havell Senior.
Although Low documents at least one later instance where the "Retouched" credit was omitted, this conceivably could have been caused by over-trimming on the part of the binder. If it was an error by the print shop, it seems to have been quickly corrected. Some time in the early years of the project, Audubon decided that the part number should consistently appear at left and the plate number consistently at right. Both Low and Fries document instances of the following format:
Another change they both document is the final title of the plate.
Fries documents the following artist's credit, a change that would have occurred after Audubon gained the two honors of which he was most proud, election to the Linnean Society in 1828 and to the Royal Society in March of 1830. ARTIST'S CREDIT: Drawn from Nature by J. J. Audubon, F,R,S F,L,S At some point, Havell changed the printer's credit again by omitting the cities of residence for both printers. Although Havell stopped using the "Junr" designation following his father's death in 1832, and removed it from many of the earlier copper plates when doing touch-ups and revisions, it appears that the "Junr" was never removed from Plate VI. Both Low and Fries document the following variant, although only Low mentions the reversal of the "z" in Lizars. This appears to be the final form of the printer's credit according to Fries's listing of watermarks (1832 to1837) for which this form is found.
Curiously, Low documents an additional change -- the introduction of an Arabic part number, a "2" replacing the Roman numeral "II"-- that Fries does not record even though he examined many impressions from the later years of the project.
It is possible, given the correction marked on our impression, that this particular change was being contemplated at the time our impression was made, and was one of the reasons the impression was rejected for coloring. (It is of course also possible that the "2" was put in by a later owner, and is not a correction done around the time of printing.) Given the variety and frequency of errors tolerated in part numbers, there may well have been other, more significant reasons that our impression was not colored.
Part of the fun of this piece is speculating how the "11" came to be present. We can imagine a conversation between Havell and an assistant, in which Havell tells him that Mr. Audubon (perhaps among other changes) wants the part number on Plate VI changed to an Arabic-style number. The assistant might have misunderstood the instruction, and thinking that an "11" was desired, engraved the wrong number, and the error was only found after a test impression was made.
This is a very unusual plate, one of the most important images of the Havell Edition, and one of a very few uncolored prints that is still in circulation.
Last updated 02.28.09 |
||||||||
