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RARE 1860 Audubon Bien Ed. Pl. 19 Iceland or Jer Falcon - $10,000 (Bergen NY)
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Audubon’s younger son, John Woodhouse, wanted to issue a second printing of their father’s famous Birds of America consisting of hand-colored engravings with etching. However, to reduce the costs, he opted to use newly emerging technique of chromolithography and recruited Julius Bien, a foremost expert in this style of printing. (see for more info: https://www.antiqueaudubon.com/store/c12/Identify-Original-Audubon-Prints )
(a) Sheet Dimensions: Sheets with large images have similar dimensions as the full sheets of Havell edition prints (i.e., ~ 39 ½” x 26 ½”), and sometimes may be slightly larger.
(b) Marginalia at the Top and Bottom: The credits at lower right of the full sheet will typically read “Chromolithy J. Bien, New York” followed by the year (any where between 1858 to 1862). The Credits at the lower left of the full sheet will be to Audubon. If there are any additional credits below, they are 20th century reproductions.
(c) Images: The chromolithography process consisted of transferring the original outline of a Havell edition image onto printing stones (anywhere from 6 to 20) with each stone colored with a unique color, and then pressed onto the paper in register. Thus these Bien edition images do not show any dot-matrix pattern when viewed with 10x or 15x magnification loupe. Often, some of the prints were finished by hand with watercolors to accentuate certain portions of the image areas.
(d) Paper: Many of the Bien edition images were printed on wood-pulp paper (instead of the J Whatman wove paper in the Havell edition). Over time, this paper became brittle (due to acidification from the residual wood pulp) and it is not uncommon to see Bien edition Audubon prints backed by japan paper or linen to stabilize them from tearing up and chipping. Coming across the original Bien edition prints without such backing is very rare indeed. It is unknown if there is backing on this print.
There is some water damage at the bottom of the print, please see photos! Print is located in Geneseo NY, but can also be picked up in Bergen NY.