the study: Imperial Folio The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America
Combining artistic with scientific accomplishment, the folio edition of The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America ("Viviparous" was dropped from the title of the octavo edition), must be set in context for us to appreciate its impact. The four principals, Audubon, John Bachman, John Woodhouse Audubon, and Victor Gifford Audubon, carried the project to completion in the face of personal, technical, and logistical difficulties, any small portion of which could have easily derailed the project. It is hard to imagine the project succeeding without the unique contribution of any of these four people, or without the assistance of Bachman's sister-in-law, Maria Martin. The Audubons were responsible for the artwork, John James and John Woodhouse each contributing about half of the animals, and Victor providing most of the backgrounds. John Bachman provided the scientific knowledge, and perhaps more importantly, scientific legitimacy given his preeminence as a naturalist. He provided the Audubons with the Latin names of the animals (included on the plates) and was the author of the 3-volume letterpress (text). On the commercial side of the project, the colorful and celebrated Audubon was the main procurer of subscriptions, while Victor managed the business and production aspects of the project. Victor also played an important role in the writing of the text by transcribing Audubon's journal for Bachman's use, and personally assisting Bachman in the completion of the last volume of the letterpress. Maria Martin (who married Bachman several years after the death of her sister, Harriet) also played an indispensable role by shaping and editing the text, and providing background drawings as the Audubons requested. The connection between the Bachman and Audubon extended families was based both on friendship and kinship through marriage. Audubon's sons had both married Bachman daughters, John Woodhouse wedding Maria in 1837, and Victor Gifford marrying her younger sister, Mary Eliza, in 1839. By agreeing to provide the text with no remuneration or financial stake in the project, Bachman was motivated partly by his desire to assist his sons-in-law, and partly by his desire to assert order on what was then a chaotic and poorly understood area of natural science. Bachman's daughters both died of consumption, Maria in 1840 (after bearing two daughters) and Mary Eliza in 1841, but the strain and pain of these untimely deaths did not ultimately lessen Bachman's commitment to his friends. He and Audubon had two grandchildren in common, and Bachman maintained familial relations with the Audubon sons even after their remarriages. The project presented many scientific difficulties. American mammals were far less studied than American birds and were poorly understood, the literature in shambles. Both Audubon and Bachman were hampered by health problems. Although Audubon traveled up the Missouri River to Fort Union (near the mouth of the Yellowstone River) with four companions including his friend, Edward Harris, to collect and study mammals, he lacked his old vigor and purposefulness. Bachman was disappointed by the paucity of concrete data to come out of the trip, and was further frustrated by the Audubon family's inability to supply him with needed references and information. When it was clear that more field work was necessary, John Woodhouse Audubon undertook a trip to Texas to study southwestern animals, and then went on to Europe to fill some of the remaining holes by drawing specimens from collections there. Audubon himself was worn down, eyesight beginning to fail, and was showing symptoms of the Alzheimer's disease that would soon reduce his mind to "ruins" (as Bachman wrote in a letter to Maria Martin during an 1848 visit to Minnie's Land). During 1846, Audubon gave up painting, and responsibility for the remaining artwork shifted squarely onto John Woodhouse's shoulders. The last Imperial Folio number was issued in the latter half of 1848. Although the Audubons began issuing an octavo version of the work in 1849, the manuscript for the last volume of the letterpress was not completed until 1852, over a year after Audubon's death. It was another two years before the volume was issued along with a 93-page supplement that included six additional octavo-sized plates by John Woodhouse Audubon. Although the project was brought to completion without the figuring of many of the mammals Audubon and Bachman had once hoped to include, both plates and letterpress met with critical acclaim. The publication of the Viviparous folio and the accompanying letterpress was considered an important event in American natural history, and for many years The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America was considered a keystone work, although it was more successful artistically than scientifically. It is difficult to appreciate today the breakthrough represented by this ambitious effort to catalogue the vast variety of animals of the North American continent. Credit Where Credit is Due As is discussed in the study area on legends
(artist credits), John Woodhouse Audubon was the actual artist on many of
the plates credited to John James Audubon in the Imperial Folio edition of the
quadrupeds. In the octavo edition of the quadrupeds, 17 plates attributed to John James were "reassigned" to
his son John Woodhouse. We list these below for your information (a star
Some critics believe that John Woodhouse may have contributed to other plates. Sarah E. Boehme, curator of an important 2000-2001 exhibit on the Quadrupeds (JOHN JAMES AUDUBON IN THE WEST - THE LAST EXPEDITION - Mammals of North America, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody WY), and principal author of the accompanying book, contrasts the two bison plates in the work (Plate LVI which depicts the male and Plate LVII which depicts female, young, and male). She concludes about the latter plate, "[a]lthough credited to John James Audubon, the figures were more likely done by John Woodhouse Audubon." Some other important plates, these all credited to John Woodhouse Audubon in both folio and octavo editions of the quadrupeds, include
Ms. Boehme, like many critics and commentators, finds John Woodhouse's work less satisfying than his father's. Although John was clearly not Audubon's equal in terms of artistry and vision, the comparisons of their work are often unfair. Some commentators point out that the bird drawings John made for Birds of America were stiff and lacked the liveliness and beauty of Audubon's. This overlooks the fact that John was not a mature or seasoned artist at the time of these drawings. Audubon's early bird drawings are wooden and far less skilled than his later work. Perhaps a fairer criticism of John can be made when considering the small mammals included in the work. Those in the first half were drawn almost exclusively (and beautifully ) by John James Audubon, while those in the second half, drawn by John, are as a rule less successfully executed. It should be remembered, however, that John was working under great pressure to bring the project to a timely conclusion, and that he may very well have produced better work under less trying circumstances. We believe that some of John's plates are among the best of the series, and the relative value placed on them by the marketplace demonstrates their appeal. Price is by no means an infallible guide to artistic quality, but a review of the starred plates in our tables shows that John's work was an important factor in the success and reputation of the series. Two other artists, Victor Gifford Audubon and Maria Martin, must be mentioned when discussing the success of the quads. We once had the pleasure of spending an afternoon paging through the Library of Congress's copy of the Imperial Folio. Believe us when we say that one thing (among the many) that does not come across in small-sized reproductions of this work is the extraordinary beauty of the backgrounds. The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America would have been a much less interesting and compelling publication without the contributions of Victor Gifford Audubon and Maria Martin. We hope over time to expand the study area to include more information about the roles of these and other important Audubon collaborators Perhaps because the images often take up most of the page, plates from the Imperial Folio are rarely trimmed in a way that adversely affects their value. As with any antique print, there is always the potential for damage caused by poor framing practices or storage in adverse conditions, but the paper used for this series seems more resistant than J Whatman paper to foxing and staining. Although the color in Imperial Folio plates are often faded if they were framed and exposed to light, we have the impression that the color tends to hold up better than the color in Havell Edition plates. If anyone has any insight into why this might be so, or would like to offer a contradicting opinion, we would welcome your comments. Although many Audubon references report that there was only a single edition of The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, there was actually a reprinting within a decade or two of the original issue. This reprinting was done under the auspices of Roe Lockwood & Son, a New York publishing company that had previously worked with the Audubons, and it may have occurred after the deaths of Victor Gifford Audubon and John Woodhouse Audubon. In a footnote (#21 on p. 187) to his chapter titled "The Publication of The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America" in John James Audubon in the West (the text for the exhibit of the same name), Dr. Ron Tyler writes The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America was reprinted at least one time, probably about 1865. Joseph Sabin in A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, from Its Discovery to the Present Time (New York, 1868 [i.e. 1867]-1936), entry 2365 [should be 2367], says that the reprint is dated 1855, but 1865 is probably a more nearly correct date. The family probably sold the stone some time after that. Sabin is considered a major reference work on American publishing in the 19th century. We found one other reference to the second issue in John James Audubon in the West in the bibliography on p.193 under the entry for The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. It says ___. The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. 3 vols. New York: John James Audubon, 1845-1848. First edition of The Quadrupeds' hand-colored lithographs; imperial folio, 150 plates, issued in 30 parts of 5 prints each (with wrappers). Ten parts to a volume (when bound in two vols. with less brilliant coloring, considered to be a later issue). Text volume published subsequently (see below), and followed by a 93-page supplement with 6 additional plates originating with the octavo edition. We also found one earlier reference to the second issue in the Christie's auction catalogue, Important Natural-History Books Including The Birds of America by John James Audubon (New York: Christie's, Friday 10 March 2000). This was the last auction -- to the best of our knowledge -- at which a complete set of the Imperial Folio was sold. The description of the Folio set says: FIRST EDITION. A FINE SET WITH BRILLIANT COLORING, EARLY ISSUE, bound in three volumes. The later issues were often bound in two volumes, and without the title-page from volume three. These two-volume sets have inferior coloring to the three volume sets. We once heard a long-time Audubon dealer say that the poorer quality of the color makes a "second edition" plate immediately obvious. We saw a "second edition" set on our visit to the important 2000-2001 exhibit, John James Audubon in the West. It was opened to show a single plate, and we saw no quality difference in the coloring of that plate compared to the other (presumably first edition) plates around us. Were that plate to be removed from the volume and shown to us in bright light along with comparison plates from the original edition -- or if we had thirty years of experience selling Imperial Folio prints -- perhaps we would have seen a difference. We assume most collectors are in the same situation that we are in -- lacking a solid basis of comparison. Our impression is that dealers do not distinguish between these two printings when offering individual plates for sale. Many dealers and other experts are unaware of this edition. Most Audubon references do not mention the second issue. If you are troubled by the possibility that you could mistakenly buy a plate from the second issue, we suggest you deal only with well-established galleries or auction houses that can provide you with the full provenance of the plate you wish to purchase. (Provenance is the chain of ownership -- in this case you would be looking for information that leads back to the 3-volume set from which the plate was taken.) If you do not require an iron-clad guarantee, then you might want to ask your dealer's opinion. Or decide based on your own opinion -- is the print beautiful? Is it worth the cost? Without full provenance, you will never know beyond a doubt that your print is from a 3-volume set, rather than a 2-volume set. But the reverse is also true. Perhaps that is why we hear so little about the second issue. Letterpress The letterpress for the Imperial Folio Edition was written by John Bachman, with portions based on Audubon's field journals, and with the assistance of Maria Martin (his sister-in-law and second wife) and Victor Audubon. Published in New York from 1846-1854 by John James Audubon and V. G. Audubon under the same title as the plates, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, the text was followed by a 93-page supplement that included 6 octavo-sized plates that originated in Volume III of the octavo edition of the work, the last volume of which was also published in 1854. Complete sets of the text including the supplement and all six plates are rare. For a listing and brief discussion of the "bonus" plates, see the study area on the octavo quadrupeds. A note about dates: Publication dates for the letterpress are generally given as 1846 for Volume I, 1851 for Volume II, and 1854 for Volume III. We have also seen some catalogue listings for the letterpress that give publication dates as 1846-1853. We are under the impression that the Audubons issued the text as bound volumes. If this is the case, it may be that Volume III was in fact issued to existing Folio subscribers in 1853, to be followed later by the 93-page supplement (including the bonus plates) in 1854. Most of these subscribers, we would guess, would not rebind their volumes to include the supplement and over the years many copies of the supplement were lost or broken up for the plates. The Audubons, however, incorporated the supplement directly into the third volume of the octavo version of the quadrupeds, and we have seen sets of the folio letterpress the third volume of which appears to be identical to that of the octavo edition (minus the plates). For example, the folio letterpress held in the Dibner Collection of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries has title pages for Volumes I (1846) and II (1851) that read "The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America" whereas the Volume III title page reads "The Quadrupeds of North America" and is identical in all respects to the title page of our own octavo quads set including the date of publication -- 1854 rather than 1853. Furthermore, the Table of Contents for the Volume III incorporates the supplement and is also identical to the Table of Contents of our octavo Volume III. The Audubons were probably still selling Imperial Folio sets in 1854. Our friend Bill Steiner reports to us that the three sets of the Imperial Folio that he has seen all had the same type of binding; it is possible that sets sold after 1848 (when the last plates were issued to subscribers) were sold by the Audubon already bound into three atlases. Unfortunately, there has not been much research into sales over time of this work, but as long as plates or atlases remained, it is almost a certainty that the Audubons would continue to sell them plus the remaining letterpress to anybody willing to pay for them. We will be trying to find additional information on these conflicting publication dates for Volume III, and will update this article as it becomes available.
Last updated 02.28.09 |
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indicates one of the more sought after images of the series). The listed
names are as they appear on the Imperial Folio plate even if the name was
changed in the text or in the octavo version of the plate.