The Strange Case Of "Britain's Audubon" and Edward Lear

By Nancy Mattoon

The Australian Black Swan From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

The recent sale of a first edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America for $11.5 million made it the most expensive printed book in history. In fact an article in The Economist online estimates that, adjusted for inflation, "five of the ten highest prices ever paid for printed books were paid for copies of Birds of America." Those two items must have Victorian ornithologist John Gould, known as "The British Audubon," spinning in his grave.

John Gould. An 1849 portrait by T.H. Maguire.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

John Gould was the most ambitious of all Victorian ornithologists, combining a shrewd and uncompromising business sense, with a sharp eye for specimens, and a sharper one for artistic talent. In his own time, as he would have been the first to inform you, Gould was just as famous, and more financially successful, than Audubon.

The Emu From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould
or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

John Gould was the son of an ambitious gardener, who through hard work and diligence became the foreman of the Royal Gardens at Windsor. Gould learned two things from his father: a love of the natural world and a belief that a man could rise above his station through sheer determination.

The Beautiful Grass-Finch,
From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould
or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

From one of his father's fellow gardeners Gould learned the art of taxidermy. Skill at preserving birds and animals was highly prized among Victorians, and some said his passion for it verged on an obsession. In any case, Gould set up his first business in Windsor as a taxidermist, and quickly won recognition for his ability to make his subjects look "natural." He became so adept at the trade that he was commissioned to stuff a giraffe for King George IV.

The Nankeen Night Heron,
From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould
or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

Gould's chance to advance beyond taxidermy came in 1827, when the newly founded Zoological Society of London held a contest to hire its first director and curator. Despite having almost no formal education, John Gould entered and won the position. In 1830 the Society acquired a large collection of bird skins from the Himalayan region of Asia.

The Australian Cassowary,
From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.
The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould
or Henry Constantine Richter.
(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

These exotic specimens, many never before documented, gave Gould the idea of publishing an illustrated guide depicting the rare birds. This became his first published work, A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830–1832). It should be noted that although Gould was credited as author, the text was written mostly by the secretary of the Society, Nicholas Aylward Vigors, and the lithography was done by primarily his wife, Elizabeth Coxen Gould, based on John Gould's original sketches. This became a pattern with Gould throughout his career. He repeatedly took sole credit for accomplishments that were in fact a team effort.

One of Edward Lear’s illustrations for John Gould’s
A Monograph of the Ramphastidae,
or Family of Toucans.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

The other unsung contributor to Gould's first book was Edward Lear. In 1830 Lear published the first two folios of Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, a ground-breaking work of ornithology for several reasons: it was the first bird book published in the large folio size, the first on a single family of birds, the first in which all of the specimens were drawn from life (at the Parrot House of London's Zoological Gardens), and one of the first to use the relatively new process of lithography, rather than engraving, for illustrations. Alas for Lear, while his work was an artistic triumph, it was also a financial failure. He spent too much time obsessively perfecting his work, and not enough selling subscriptions and collecting payments.

Edward Lear in 1840,
as drawn by his friend Wilhelm Marstrand.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

But Lear's business failure was Gould's opportunity. He not only hired Lear to work for him, he appropriated Lear's format and style as his own. Thus all of Lear's innovations were soon attributed to the more successful Gould. (Save for the fact that Gould often used preserved specimens rather than live birds as his subjects.) Lear taught the lithography process to Elizabeth Gould, and drew all of the backgrounds for her illustrations. None of his work was credited.

Macrocercus ararauna (Blue and Yellow Maccaw)
from Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae,
or Parrots by Edward Lear.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

The relationship between Lear and Gould has been called "seven years of exploitation," in an online exhibit on Lear's ornithological illustrations from Cornell's University's Albert R. Mann Library. According to the exhibit, Lear created ten complete plates for Gould's 1834 work, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans, with no acknowledgement whatsoever, and with his signature actually having been erased from the plates in the second edition. In total Lear contributed to six of Gould's books.

Detail from Edward Lear's illustration of a Raven (Corvus corax)
from Volume III of John Gould's The Birds of Europe.
(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

John Gould was by anyone's estimation a master of the business of books. He deserves immense credit as one of the nineteenth century's greatest natural history publishers. Driven and prolific, he produced 15 major works on birds, containing over 3,000 color plates, and covering every major continent save Africa. Additionally, he wrote over 300 scientific articles and many smaller books. If he had been content to be remembered as an ornithologist and publisher, his legacy would have been untarnished.

Macrocercus aracanga (Red and Yellow Maccaw),
from Edward Lear's
Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae,
or Parrots.

(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

But John Gould's desire to be held in esteem as an artist and writer caused him to needlessly take credit where credit was not due. Upon Gould's death in 1881, the usually affable Lear wrote, "He was one I never liked really, for in spite of a certain jollity and bonhommie [sic], he was a harsh and violent man... [A] persevering hard working toiler in his own line, but ever as unfeeling for those about him... He owed everything to his excellent wife,—& to myself, without whose help in drawing he had done nothing." A sad coda to a life of true accomplishment, shadowed only by the need to be seen as an artistic genius, when being business genius was enough.
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Rara Avis, Rari Libri, Rare Man

by Linda Hedrick

John James Audubon (1785-1851)
Oil on canvas by John Syme, 1826
Currently hanging in the White House.

John James Audubon, a Haitian-born man raised in France, had a vision. One that resulted in a monumental and important work – Birds of America.

Carolina Pigeon
(now called Mourning Dove)

He had loved birds and nature as a child, and was encouraged by his father to explore and draw what he saw. He was reported to be quite charming, played the flute and violin, learned to ride and to fence, but loved roaming the woods best.

White Gerfalcons

Although his father had planned for his son to be a seaman, the young Audubon was not fond of navigation or the math required, and failed his officer’s qualification test. He also got seasick easily. His father managed to secure a fake passport and sent him to America in 1803, in order to avoid being drafted in the Napoleonic wars.

Virginian Partridge (Northern Bobwhite)
under attack by a young red-shouldered hawk.

Audubon did well in various family businesses, but really relished his time outdoors, hunting, fishing and drawing. He had a great respect for Native Americans, and spent time with local tribes learning their ways of hunting and their views on nature. He married his neighbor’s daughter, Lucy Bakewell, with whom he shared common interests. They lived in Kentucky and spent time together exploring the local countryside.

Roseate Spoonbill

In 1812, after Congress declared war with Great Britain, Audubon went to Philadelphia and became an American citizen. Upon returning to Kentucky, he found that his entire collection - over two hundred drawings - had been destroyed by rats. Despondent and downhearted, he decided to redo his work, but this time even better.

Paridae:  (clockwise from top right, in pairs)
Psaltriparus minimus, Parus atricapillus, Parus rufescens

His methods for drawing birds were based on his extensive observations from the field. He first killed the birds with fine shot, then wired them into natural poses. He painted the birds in their natural settings, often as though in the midst of motion. 

The Greater Flamingo

Working primarily with layers of watercolor and sometimes gouache, he added pastels or colored chalk for softness. Audubon drew all the birds life-size and placed smaller birds in settings with branches, flowers, fruit and berries. He grouped several species in some drawings on the same page to show contrast. His poses were contrived to reveal as much of bird anatomy as possible, achieving both scientific and artistic efficacy.

Snowy Heron or White Egret

He took his new collection of drawings to England in 1826. American printers had not been very responsive to his enthusiastic plans to publish life-size prints of hundreds of bird species made from engraved copper plates and hand-colored.  

Mallard Ducks

Birds of America consists of 435 prints printed on sheets measuring 39 by 26 inches. The printing costs were $115,640 (over $2,000,000 by today’s rates). Besides arranging for the production of his grand opus, he tirelessly promoted it.  He raised the money from advance subscriptions, oil painting commissions, exhibitions, and even the sale of animal skins from his hunts.

Blue Jays

Over fifty colorists were hired to apply each color in an assembly line. The original edition was engraved in aquatint. Robert Havell took over the project when the first ten plates of engraver W. H. Lizars were found subpar. By the 1830s, lithography replaced the aquatint process. He called the new size the double elephant folio since it was double elephant paper size.

Anna's Hummingbird

Criticized for not ordering the plates in Linnaean order (like a scientific treatise), he was more interested in providing a visual tour for the reader. King George IV was a subscriber along with others of nobility. He gave a demonstration of how he propped the birds with wire to arrange their poses. A student at the time, Charles Darwin, was at that demonstration. Darwin quotes Audubon three times in The Origin of Species and in later works.

Golden Eagle

Audubon has had a vast influence on natural history and ornithology. His high standards set the bar for future works. Among his accomplishments were the discovery of twenty-five new species and twelve subspecies. In his journals, he warned about loss of habitats and over-hunting. Birds that have become extinct, including the Carolina Parakeet, Passenger Pigeon, and Great Auk, are only known to us from his prints.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker

His next work was a sequel entitled Ornithological Biographies, written with a Scottish ornithologist, William MacGillivray. Both books were published between 1827 and 1839, but separately to avoid having to provide a copy of Birds of America to the Crown libraries, as required by law for any books with text.

Ruffled Grouse

In 1839-1844, he published an octavo edition of Birds of America with an additional 65 plates. These were approximate 10-1/2 by 6-3/4 inches.  The earliest editions were bound in seven volumes, editions after 1865 in eight volumes.  This edition was first published in fascicles (parts) in an effort to make it more affordable, and therefore accessible to libraries and to more people. Each fascicle cost $1, and the entire set cost $100.  Once collected, most subscribers had them bound in volumes.

Fascicle of Part 4

The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, his final work which focused on documenting mammals, was written in collaboration with Rev. John Bachman, who supplied most of the scientific text. This was completed by his sons and son-in-law posthumously.

Snowy Owl

John Woodhouse Audubon devoted himself entirely to continuing the work of his father. They worked together on the series The Quadrapeds of North America (the “Viviparous” was dropped), but when John James became too ill to continue, John Woodhouse ended up doing most of the drawings. Because of the dangers of working closely with live animals, caged or dead ones were used as models.  Since this was more unwieldy than staging bird poses, their animal paintings were not as successful, and are rather gloomy.

Mountain Brook Minks, 1848 by John Woodhouse Audubon.
Image courtesy of National Museum of Wildlife Art

Despite being under the shadow of his father, John Woodhouse’s contributions are valuable. His brother, Victor Gifford Audubon, also continued the family tradition of wildlife painting, but is the least known of the Audubon family.

Passenger Pigeons
(now extinct)

Lucy Audubon sold all 435 of the original watercolors to the New York Historical Society, after her husband’s death. Desperate for money, she later sold all but 80 of the original copper plates to the Phelps Dodge Corporation, who melted them down and sold them for scrap.

Sotheby's Mary Engleheart shown with copy of Birds of America to be
auctioned December 7th.  Photo by Pitarakis/AP.

Considered the world’s most expensive book, one of the 119 copies still extant will be available to the highest bidder this December 7, at Sotheby’s auction. The last time a copy became available was at an auction at Christie’s in 2000. That copy went for $8.8 million, setting the record for an auctioned printed book. The currently available book comes from the estate of a book collector, Major Frederick Fermor-Hesketh, the 2nd Baron Hesketh, who died in 1955. Of the 119 remaining copies of the book, only a few are in private hands, the rest (estimated to be 108) belong to libraries, universities, and museums. 

Photograph of John James Audubon just prior to his death
by photographer Charles DeForest Fredricks

John James Audubon was a talented artist and salesman, whose exacting efforts to record the creatures he loved yielded one of the most impressive books ever made. A unique man, he envisioned his dreams and brought them to fruition. That is certainly worth millions of dollars.

__________

Images courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, except as noted.
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Old Money Shows At Princeton

Detail From: Czechoslovakia, 50 korun, 1929. (Front.)

Designed by Alfons Mucha, engraved by Karel Wolf.
Collection of Vsevolod Onyshkevych.
(All Images Courtesy Of Princeton University Numismatic Collection.)

It makes the world go around, it talks, it can't buy happiness, and the only sure way to double it is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket. Yes, we're talking a mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound, but minus that clinking, clanking sound. In other words, currency. While vintage coin collections are a dime a dozen, it is more unusual, and more difficult, to accumulate historical paper money. Almost as quickly as they disappear from the average checking account, banknotes become victims of the wear and tear of circulation. The average life span of a one dollar bill is 22 months according to the Federal Reserve Bank. By contrast, the average coin stays in circulation for 25 years. But the design and creation of printed bills dates all the way back to 7th century China, and a new exhibition of archival currency at Princeton University's Firestone Library proves making money really can be a fine art.

Robert Deodaat Emile Oxenaar,
Dutch 100 Guilder Note, 1977. (Front)
Collection of Vsevolod Onyshkevych.

Detail From Obverse.

Robert Deodaat Emile Oxenaar,
Dutch 100 Guilder Note, 1977. (Back)
This Beautiful Note Has Since Been Replaced By The Euro.

The exhibit, Money on Paper, features American currency from Princeton's Numismatic Collection, one of only three such comprehensive collections at a U.S. university. (The others are at Yale University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.) Princeton's currency collection includes over 650 U.S. Colonial/Continental notes, roughly 2,000 Confederate States of America bills, and nearly 1,200 19th century American "Broken Bank Notes," so named because of the frequency with which the issuing banks closed up shop, leaving the bill holder with a fistful of worthless paper. Supplementing the display are rare items on loan from the world class banknote collection of Princeton Class of 1983 alum, Vsevolod Onyshkevych, which is particularly strong in European currency.

New Jersey, 1 shilling, December 31, 1763.
Designed By Benjamin Franklin.

Printed by James Parker, Woodbridge. (Front)

New Jersey, 1 shilling,
December 31, 1763. (Back)

Beginning in 1684, British colonies were barred from minting their own coins. This led to the American colonies becoming one of the earliest regular issuers of paper money. Both Paul Revere and South Carolina engraver Thomas Corum were notable designers of colonial currency, but the most inventive note printer of the era was, not surprisingly, Benjamin Franklin, who even penned a 1729 treatise on the subject. Beginning in 1730, Franklin was the printer of all paper money issued by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Franklin's license to print money proved extremely lucrative, and he devised several ingenious ways to prevent counterfeiting. These included a secret process for transferring the irregular patterns and fine lines of tree leaves onto printing plates, and the creation of a unique paper stock infused with mica particles.

John James Audubon,
Grouse Vignette, c. 1822.

The star attraction of the Princeton exhibit is the first public display of what has been called the "holy grail of Audubon scholarship," the recently discovered banknote engraving of a grouse by the great wildlife illustrator, which is his first published work. Audubon had made two references to the illustration in his diaries, but some researchers doubted its existence. It was even suggested that Audubon lied when he wrote of it to enhance his, then nonexistent, reputation. Eric Newman, a numismatic historian, and Robert Peck, a senior fellow with Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences spent ten years searching for the long-lost illustration. They discovered it on a sheet of sample images produced in 1824 by a New Jersey engraver who specialized in illustrations for banknotes. Although it is unsigned, the image is "Vintage, quintessential Audubon," according to Roberta Olson, curator of drawings at the New York Historical Society, which houses all 435 original watercolors for Birds of America. On display with a sample sheet containing the vignette will be an original watercolor by Audubon, a steel printing plate from Birds of America, and the Princeton first edition of the elephant folio book open to the page with Audubon's drawing of the pinnated grouse.

Who Knew George Had Such Great Gams?

New York, New York, The National Bank, $5,
Unissued Proof (c. 1829).Vignettes of George Washington,
and the Mythological Figure Hebe by Asher B. Durand.

Imagine The Uproar If Today's Treasury Department

Issued A Five Featuring This Scantily-Clad Beauty?

One of the premier banknote designers of the first half of the 19th century was renowned Hudson River School painter, Asher B. Durand. Durand began his career as an engraver. He produced the well-known engraving of the signing of the Declaration of Independence for portraitist John Trumbull, which in 1995 became the obverse design on the two-dollar bill. Durand, along with his brother, Cyrus, pioneered the classical, patriotic designs which still hold sway over American currency today. Their intricate borders and highly detailed designs were also a delightfully decorative way of discouraging would-be forgers.

John C. Calhoun,

7th Vice President Of The United States.

Confederate States of America, $1,000,
Montgomery, Alabama, May 22, 1861.

Andrew Jackson,

7th President Of The United States.

Another section of the exhibit compares the imagery of Northern and Southern currency before and during the American Civil War. Included is a complete set of six notes printed by the National Bank Note Company of New York and smuggled into the Confederacy in 1861 for distribution as currency of Alabama and Virginia. These notes are in Extremely Fine condition, making them exceedingly rare.

Obverse of the Series of 1896 Silver Certificate:
"Electricity as the Dominant Force in the World."

And The Image That Got It Banned In Boston.

The American section of the exhibition ends with the Educational Series of 1896, a group of Silver Certificates featuring allegorical motifs, and considered to be the most beautiful currency ever produced in the United States. Designed and engraved by some of the most important illustrators of the day, the series featured the infamous five-dollar bill "banned in Boston" due to its depiction of bare-breasted women on the obverse.

Czechoslovakia, 50 korun, 1929. (Front.)
Designed by Alfons Mucha, engraved by Karel Wolf.
Collection of Vsevolod Onyshkevych.

The European section of the show includes Czechoslovakian currency produced by Alfons Mucha, better known for his Art Nouveau posters of actress Sarah Bernhardt, among others. When Czechoslovakia won its independence after World War I, Mucha designed the first postage stamps, banknotes and other government documents for the new state. By the late 1930's Mucha's art, and his Czech nationalism,were denounced in the Nazi press. When German troops invaded Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939, the 79 year-old artist was considered so dangerous he was among the first persons detained by the Gestapo. During his imprisonment and interrogation, Mucha contracted pneumonia. Though eventually released, his health was ruined, and he never recovered. Broken-hearted at the takeover of his homeland by Hitler, Mucha died on July 14, 1939.

Czechoslovakia, 50 korun, 1929. (Back)
Designed by Alfons Mucha, engraved by Karel Wolf.
Collection of Vsevolod Onyshkevych.

Something For The Ladies:
Money Featuring A Beefcake Shot.

A publication entitled Money on Paper, by Princeton's Curator of Numismatics Alan M. Stahl, accompanies the exhibit. It contains a full catalogue of the bank notes on display, with many illustrated in full color. There are also three illustrated essays in the catalogue: Mark Tomasko writing on "Bank Note Engraving in the United States," Francis Musella on "Benjamin Franklin's Nature Printing on Bank Notes," and an edited version of the headline-making article by Robert Peck and Eric P. Newman entitled "Discovered! The First Engraving of an Audubon Bird." The Money on Paper exhibit at the Leonard L. Milberg Gallery for the Graphic Arts of the Firestone Library opens August 30, 2010 and continues through January 2, 2011.