Rare Book Monthly
Articles - December - 2005 Issue
At Christies Fantasy takes Flight
Snowy Heron or White Egret
"At the time of the de-lining, twelve plates and three titles pages were backed with RK29 japanese paper using wheat starch paste, as they had sustained earlier damage while bound....Through the earlier rebindings, the prints had been trimmed slightly. The sheet was 38" x 25 1/4", which was slightly smaller than the original size."
Today the complete set of prints is matted, each in a window mat and housed in 44 solander boxes.
For the past quarter century sets have come to market with some regularity. More frequently individual plates come up but substantially complete sets as well. Only last year a very good eastern European set came to market and brought $5,539,700 for 428 of the 435 plates. In 2000 the Fox-Bute complete copy, widely considered a gem, brought $8,000,000. In 1992 the original subscriber set of the University of Edinburgh brought $3,700,000. The Deerfield Academy copy brought $2,720,000 in 1990. The Bradley Martin copy, described as "a magnificent set in exceptionally fine condition" brought $3,600,000 in 1989. In 1984 the National Academy of Sciences Library sold their copy through Sotheby's for $1,440,000. In recent years a strong print market has flourished, adding interest from print dealers who "break" and resell the individual plates.
Left unsaid is this. Next to the Gutenberg Bible a set of the original Audubon double folio prints is America's and possibly the world's most coveted printed item. If this is something that interests you, you are advised to both get into discussions with Christies and separately obtain impartial expert advice.
To obtain such advice I include the names of several dealers who are familiar with the Audubon market.
Ben Weinstein of Heritage Book Shop [310] 659-3674.
Bill Reese, William Reese Company [203] 789-8081.
Tom Edsall, 19th Century Shop [410] 727-2665.
Donald Heald, Donald A. Heald Rare Books [212] 744-3505.
Joel Oppenheimer, The Natural History Art Gallery [312] 642-5300.
Rare Book Monthly
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Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
26th March 2026Forum, Mar. 26: Book of Hours.- Heures a lusaige de Romme, printed on vellum, with 14 full-page illuminated miniatures, Paris, N. Higman for J. de Brie, [c.1521]. £20,000-30,000Forum, Mar. 26: France.- Book of Hours, perhaps Use of the Abbey of Saint-Gildas de Rhuys, with thirteen miniatures surviving from an original cycle of at least twenty, [c. 1430]. £15,000-20,000Forum, Mar. 26: Milton (John). Paradise lost. A Poem in Ten Books, first edition, Pforzheimer's sixth state, S. Simmons, 1669. £8,000-12,000Forum, Mar. 26: Blake (William). Illustrations of the Book of Job, one of 215 first issue "Proof" copies, this one of 65 copies on "French" paper, Published by the Author, March 8, 1825 [but March, 1826]. £15,000-20,000Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
26th March 2026Forum, Mar. 26: Christie (Agatha). The ABC Murders, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. £15,000-20,000Forum, Mar. 26: Halley (Edmund). Astronomiae Cometicae Synopsis, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, no. 297, pp.1882-99, March 1705. £10,000-15,000Forum, Mar. 26: Haytham (Ibn al) [known as Alhazen]. Opticae Thesaurus...Item Vitellonis Thuringopoloni libri X..., first edition, Basel, August, 1572. £20,000-30,000Forum, Mar. 26: Kepler (Johannes). Dioptrice seu demonstratio eorum quae visui & visibilibus propter conspicilla non ita pridem inventa accidunt, first edition, Augsburg, David Frank, 1611. £12,000-18,000