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''The Birds of America'' is a book by naturalist and painter John James Audubon, containing illustrations of a wide variety of birds of the United States. It was first published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and London. The work consists of hand-coloured, life-size prints, made from engraved plates, measuring around . It includes images of six now-extinct birds: Carolina parakeet, passenger pigeon, Labrador duck, great auk, Esquimaux curlew, and pinnated grouse.〔http://web4.audubon.org/bird/boa/ExtinctBirds.html〕 ==Early publication history== About 1820, around the age of 35, Audubon declared his intention to paint every bird in North America. In his bird art, he mainly forsook oil paint, the medium of serious artists of the day, in favour of watercolours and pastel crayons (and occasionally pencil, charcoal, chalk, gouache, and pen and ink).〔 As early as 1807, he developed a method of using wires and threads to hold dead birds in lifelike poses while he drew them.〔 In 1823, Audubon went to Philadelphia and New York, looking for financial support in the form of subscribers to enable him to publish his artwork, but he found support lacking.〔 As a result, in 1826, he set sail for the United Kingdom with 250〔http://www.nls.uk/exhibitions/audubon/influence#lizars〕 of his original illustrations, looking for the financial support of subscribers and the technical abilities of engravers and printers. After exhibiting his drawings in Liverpool and Manchester, he journeyed to Edinburgh, where he met the accomplished engraver William H. Lizars. Lizars engraved up to ten of the first plates but was unable to continue the project when his colourists went on strike.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Victoria Gallery & Museum - University of Liverpool )〕 In 1827, Audubon engaged the noted London animal engraver Robert Havell Jr., and his father, Robert Havell Sr. Havell Jr. oversaw the project through to its completion in 1838.〔 The original edition of ''Birds of America'' (sometimes called the Havell Edition〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Original Audubon Prints - Antique Natural History Prints - Books - Havell - Bien - Imperial Folio - Bird and Animal Prints )〕 after its printer, and sometimes called the "Double Elephant Folio", because of its size) was printed on handmade paper 39.5 inches tall by 28.5 inches wide.〔 The principal printing technique was copperplate etching, but engraving and aquatint were also used.〔 Watercolour was then added by hand. Audubon funded the costly printing project through a pay-as-you-go subscription. From 1826 to 1829, he travelled around the UK and to Paris, lecturing on ornithology and frontier American life〔 in an effort to entice wealthy patrons to subscribe to the series of prints. Subscribers included Charles X of France, Queen Adelaide of Britain (wife of William IV), Earl Spencer, and, later, the Americans Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. Prints were issued in sets of five every month or two in tin cases and each set usually included one very large bird, one medium-sized bird, and three small birds.〔 In 1838, at the end of the thirteen-year project, 435 plates (87 sets of five) had been issued at a total cost of $870 or 175 British guineas (£183.75).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Original Audubon Prints - Antique Natural History Prints - Books - Havell - Bien - Imperial Folio - Bird and Animal Prints )〕 The plates were published unbound and without any text to avoid having to furnish free copies to the public libraries in England.〔 It is estimated that not more than 200 complete sets were ever compiled.〔〔 An accompanying text, issued separately, was written by Audubon and the Scottish naturalist and ornithologist William MacGillivray〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=William MacGillivray )〕 and published in five volumes in Edinburgh between 1831 and 1839, under the title ''Ornithological Biography, or, An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America''.〔 The additional cost of the five volumes of text brought the total cost of plates and text to about $1000.〔 After the folio edition was completed, Audubon decided to produce a more affordable edition and employed a lithographer from Philadelphia named J. T. Bowen. Bowen and his team created a smaller Royal Octavo edition, which was issued to subscribers in seven volumes and completed in 1844 after selling 1,199 sets. Five more octavo editions were completed through 1877. The octavo edition used the text of the Ornithological biography but increased the number of plates to 500, separating some birds which had originally appeared together. Some new drawings were included, mostly by John Woodhouse though Audubon and members of Bowen's team also contributed.〔http://www.audubonhouse.org/audubon/octavo/bowen.cfm〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Registry Of Nature Habitats - Audubon Birds of America - Publisher's Preface )〕 The Bien Edition (after chromolithography pioneer Julius Bien), was a full-sized reissue published in 1858 by Roe Lockwood in New York under the supervision of Audubon's youngest son, John Woodhouse Audubon. Due in part to the Civil War, the edition was never finished; only 15 parts of the 44 part series were completed. This edition consisted of 105 plates and included none of the original text. Fewer than 100 subscriptions were sold, making this edition rarer than other early editions. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Birds of America」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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