Brown Pelican

This remarkable, elephant folio lithograph is from the Amsterdam Edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America. The work was published in Amsterdam and New York by Johnson Reprint Corporation and Theatrum Orbis Terrarum between 1971 and 1972.

The lithographs from the Amsterdam edition are highly respected and sought after because of the detail used in their creation. The complex but accurate process of color photo-lithography was used for printing each image. The publishers also chose to have a woven paper produced of the highest quality using 100% unbleached cotton rags with each sheet bearing a watermark.

Only 250 copies of the Amsterdam edition were published and then sold by subscription. The printing was the first recreation of the Audubon plates in elephant folio size in 135 years. This edition is very appealing to the Audubon collector due to the look and feel of that of the original Havell edition.