7 volumes, royal 8vo (258 x 161 mm). Half-titles, 500 HAND-COLORED LITHOGRAPHED PLATES after Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock, R. Trembly and others, printed and colored by J.T. Bowen, numerous wood-engraved anatomical diagrams in text. (Some minor spotting primarily to text leaves, light toning and offsetting, slight marginal staining to a few leaves, a few plates trimmed close occasionally affecting image and a few short mostly marginal tears.) Early 20th-century half brown crushed levant gilt, top edges gilt (light wear to extremities, a few minor stains to sides, a few hinges very slightly separating, some old cellotape to vol. III pastedowns).

FIRST OCTAVO EDITION. Audubon’s double-elephant folio edition of The Birds of America (1827-1838) established his reputation as the greatest ornithological artist of his time. Though that edition was published in London to ensure the quality of the plates, he employed the Philadelphia firm of J.T. Bowen to produce this more commercially viable edition under the close supervision of his sons whereby the folio plates were reduced by camera lucida and lithographed. This octavo edition is considered the "first and most desirable edition in this form published during the author’s lifetime, in one hundred parts" (Sabin). The original subscription price was $100, and its commercial success granted Audubon financial security. In addition to the original plate count included in the double-elephant folio edition, the octavo edition has 65 new images for a total of 500 plates, making it "the most extensive color plate book produced in America up to that time" (Reese). Ayer/Zimmer, p.22; Bennett, p.5; McGill/Wood, p.208; Nissen IVB 51; Reese 34; Sabin 2364.