The Birds of America

The Birds of America

A beautiful new edition of Audubon's masterpiece from the 19th century, featuring 435 hand-coloured prints. This is one of the most valuable books ever published - a complete set of the original metre high folio sold for auction in 2010 for $7.3 million.

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John James Audubon was a naturalist and painter and is considered one of the greatest bird artists of all time. Born in Haiti in 1785, he spent much of his life travelling North America observing, catching and drawing birds and animals in remarkable detail. Using a variety of materials to create a highly dramatic style, he painted almost 500 species of the 700 or so regularly occurring North American bird species. He also painted other animals but it is his life-size illustrations of birds that he is most famous for.