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  • Havell copper plate — SOLD

Havell copper plate — SOLD

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Original Havell etched copper plate (with aquatint and engraving) for PL 415 Brown Creeper, Californian Nuthatch.

Excellent provenance. One of fewer than 80 original plates still extant. Plated with nickel on the etched side. Retains some ink in grooves, possibly from Havell’s shop. Carefully and expertly restored.

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Description

This is one of only a small number of surviving Havell Edition copper plates — the actual metal plates used to print the bird images for the Havell Edition of The Birds of America. I purchased the plate for one of the later small images, PL 415 Brown Creeper – Californian Nuthatch, which was the fifth and final print of Audubon’s 83rd number. (The Birds of America consists of 435 plates, originally issued in 87 numbers, each number including five prints.) The provenance on the plate is excellent, and can be traced to just a handful of owners since the copper plate was etched and engraved in the 1830s.

The copper plate was etched and engraved in 1838, after which prints were pulled from it and hand- colored as part of Audubon and Havell’s last dash to complete the Double Elephant Folio. The plate is therefore around 180 years old. Plated on the front with nickel (which improves durability during printing), the “copper” is well preserved, having been cleaned in early 2018 by Steven Pickman Objects Conservation, LLC. The plate was shown at the Biggs Museum of American Art in 2018 as part of a special exhibition titled “Audubon, Then and Now.”

Prior to my acquisition in 2017, the plate was owned continuously by a single family since the latter 1800s. The family acquired the plate directly from William Dodge, whose company Phelps, Dodge purchased the copper plates as scrap within a few years of Lucy Audubon having sold them under financial duress. Many of the plates that survive today can be traced back to a Phelps, Dodge purchase (circa 1870s) of Audubon copper plates as scrap metal.

Please contact me for more information on this very rare and important item.

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