John James Audubon - BIEN EDITION - Print Gallery

John James Audubon completed his magnificant work Birds of America in 1838. The work consisted of 435 double elephant folio sized aquatints, which were engraved and hand colored by the firm of Robert Havell in London, England. That original first edition is called the Havell edition.

When John James Audubon died in 1851, both of his sons, John Woodhouse Audubon and Victor Gifford Audubon, continued to run the business that their father had started. In 1858 John Woodhouse Audubon hired Julius Bien, (pronounced like "bean" in "string bean") a lithographer in New York, to produce a second set of double elephant folio sized Birds of America. The plan was to reissue all 435 prints from the Havell edition, but this time to produce them in the United States and to use what was then a new technique called chromolithography to make the prints.

The work on this edition - often called the Bien edition or second edition - continued until 1860 when the outbreak of the Civil War eliminated most of the customer base for these prints. Instead this project nearly bankrupted the Audubon family. Only 150 of the 435 prints were created before the project was cancelled. This has resulted in the Bien edition being more rare than the Havell edition that preceeded it. It is estimated that only 75-100 copies of each print were made.

All Bien edition prints listed below are for sale and are authentic Bien edition originals.

Visit our Contact Page to request more information, to arrange payment or to request additional photos.

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Item B-104 SWAINSON'S WARBLER - Plate 104 Print Size: 24.5" x 19.75", Framed $1850.00 Framed as shown Also available unframed	Item B-205 ROSE BREASTED GROSBEAK - Plate 205 Print Size: 30" x 23", Unframed $2650.00	Item B-288 FISH HAWK or OSPREY - Plate 288. Print Size: 38.5" x 26.25" $20,950.00 Framed as shown $18,950.00 Unframed
Item B-395 CANVAS BACKED DUCK - Plate 395 Print Size: 39" x 26.25", Unframed $14,950.00

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