EXTREMELY RARE and IMPORTANT print!
First Havell Edition! 

An original James Audubon 1836

"Elephant Portfolio"

Mallard Print!
Bottom center printed "Mallard" "ANAS BOSCHAS" 1 male 2 females

Top Left corner No. 45
Top Right corner Plate CCXXI
 

SIZE: 34 -1/2 by 22 - 1/4 
Mounted on 19th century backer board. 

One of only 25 known in the world.  
Appraised by Sothebys for $40k to $60k in 2007.

 

Provenance
Found at San Francisco Bay area flea market in 1980 by the seller. 

Serious buyers will be sent the appraisal sheet.

  
50 were original printed,

25 lost in Audobons shop fire! 
This is ONE of only 24 other in the world.

 

This is a true museum piece and should be treated as such. 

 

Located in the San Ramon, CA area for inspection.

Birds of America Havell Edition (1826-38) The 1st original Audubon publication. Some of the first 10 prints in the series were produced in Scotland by Lizars, and the remainder were produced in London by R. Havell and/or his son (Jr.).

 

There were 435 different prints in this publication, and an estimated 180 complete sets of 435 were produced. Today, about 110 of these sets remain intact as bound book volumes owned by museums, institutions, and private individuals. The last recorded sale for a complete 4 volume bound set was $8.8 million. Individual prints sell for from several thousand dollars each up to $200,000.00 or more. 

The Audubon Havell Edition prints are hand colored aquatint copper-plate engravings.

 

Each print will have a plate mark, a colorless rectangular depression in the paper created by the extreme pressure used in the printing process. The paper is somewhat heavy, yet supple enough to be rolled. The paper will have a watermark, visible when held up to a light source, either J. Whatman or J. Whatman Turkey Mills, plus a year.

 

Full sized original prints would measure about 26-1/2" x 39-1/2" (this size is extremely important in distinguishing from reproductions) if originally bound into a volume (or slightly larger if never bound into a book), and might have tiny holes or slits along one edge, where the print was stitched into a book volume.

 

A plate # was printed in the upper right corner in Roman numerals. Generally, plate #s ending in I or VI (1 or 6) had one large bird on each print, which took up most of the sheet of paper, as ALL birds were printed life sized. Prints ending with plate #s of II or VII (2 or 7) generally had images of one medium sized bird. The remaining prints, or about 60% of all Havell Edition prints, had relatively small images of songbirds on a large sheet of paper. It was not uncommon to trim or fold these prints so they would fit into a smaller less expensive frame. If more than 1" or 2" of the above dimensions have been trimmed from these very rare original prints, their value would be appreciably reduced.

 

If an original Havell Edition print were trimmed so that there was no evidence of the plate mark or watermark, this is one rare case where you cannot positively self-authenticate the originality of the print, and the print should be professionally authenticated.