Snowy Egret
Snowy Egret or Snowy Heron
John James Audubon’s Birds of America
Princeton Audubon Double Elephant Edition.
26 1/4 x 39 1/4; Condition: Mint
Thank you for visiting Princeton Audubon!
“Of all the full-size facsimiles of Audubon's prints, those from Princeton Audubon Ltd. come the closest in appearance and quality to the originals. Combining this with their very reasonable cost makes Princeton Audubon facsimiles winners for those looking to acquire some of the most dramatic American natural history images ever produced." - Chris Lane, Philadelphia Print Shop West, appraiser on Antiques Roadshow.
Of our prints, William Steiner, author of Audubon Prints: A Collector’s Guide To Every Edition wrote, “True prints, true colors, incredible detail. Princetons are simply the finest Audubon facsimiles ever made!”
We purchased the actual antique originals in order to accurately produce this award-winning edition, giving you a connection to Audubon’s original work. Read more ...
In order to create this spectacular print, we needed to purchase the actual original. Measuring more than two feet by three feet, the birds are the same size as in life.
Princetons began with the purchase of the actual originals which were physically used in the production process. A giant camera with film the same size as the print took a direct-capture picture of the original, and this exact image was transferred directly to the metal printing plates. There are no other Audubon facsimiles which match the quality of Princeton prints.
Here are the printing specifications ...
Princeton Audubon Double Elephant Edition •Double elephant (life size - 26 1/4 x 39 1/4) •Limited edition of 1500. •Pencil-numbered and embossed with the Princeton Audubon Limited seal. •Up to 11 color plates used. •Specially developed fade-proof inks. Absolute color fidelity to the actual original. •Printed on a 300 line. •Very heavy archival paper which is recommended by the Library of Congress for archives and is specially toned to match the actual color of the antique originals. •Registered to purchaser. •As permanently displayed at The Royal Society of London, to which Audubon belonged as a Fellow.
About the image itself ...
In the early spring of 1832, Audubon and his assistant George Lehman stayed at the home of John Bachman in Charleston, South Carolina. Audubon wrote of the thousands of snowy egrets that had arrived there by March 25 and “were seen in the marshes and rice fields, all in full plumage.” Soon he painted this magnificent egret, while Lehman added the landscape of a rice plantation in the Carolina low country.
Known to the plume hunters as the “Little Snowy,” the bird was adorned in breeding season with delicate plumes. Its lovely recurved back plumes were the milliners’ “cross aigrettes,” and it was for these nuptial feathers that the heronries were destroyed. Roger Tory Peterson writes, “The National Audubon Society fought for plumage laws, and to meet the emergency hired wardens…Under protection the egrets and all the other long-legged waders have made a spectacular comeback.”