An early subscriber edition of John James Audobon’s The Birds of America will be offered at a single lot sale at Sotheby’s in New York on December 18. This remarkable work sought to depict every known species of bird in the United States at actual size. Regarded as the most beautiful colour plate book ever published it features 435 hand coloured etched plates depicting 1,065 life-size birds representing 489 of the then known birds found in the US. The monumental four volume double elephant folio at Sotheby’s is an unusually large and brilliantly coloured edition. Dating to 1827-1838 it is known as the double elephant because of the size of paper that had to be specially made for the publication. It is estimated at $6-8 million.
UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $6.6 MILLION
