James J. Audubon's "Quadrupeds of North America," 1856 edition

Appraised on: June 17, 2006

Appraised in: Tucson, Arizona

Appraised by: Stephen Massey

Category: Books & Manuscripts

Episode Info: Tucson, Hour 3 (#1109)

Originally Aired: February 26, 2007

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (2:20)

APPRAISER: I see you have a set of Audubon's "Quadrupeds" of North America.

GUEST: Yes, yes, I do.

APPRAISER: Can you tell me how you got this?

GUEST: They actually were a gift to my great-great-grandfather, and they've just been passed down through the family to me.

APPRAISER: And I see it was given on the 31st of December, 1857.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: I don't know whether you know, but Audubon was dead by the time this book was published.

GUEST: That's the only thing that I know about it is that he died, I guess, halfway through the publishing of them.

APPRAISER: What happened was that his fame, of course, rests on "The Birds of America," which was published in England between 1827 and 1838. And a copy of that in complete state is worth in the $5 million to $10 million bracket.

GUEST: Oh, my, wow.

APPRAISER: What happened afterwards is that he wanted to make an edition of "The Birds of America" that the general public could afford.

GUEST: Okay. Oh.

APPRAISER: Following the success of that book, he envisaged a similar project for “The Quadrupeds of North America.” And he, with the help of his sons, John Woodhouse and Victor, made a similar book with about 155 plates, as opposed to the 500 that were in the “Birds.”

GUEST: Oh, wow.

APPRAISER: But really, mostly, it's the work of his son John Woodhouse, who did the illustrations for this.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Audubon died in 1851, and the large folio version of the “Quadrupeds” was first published in 1846.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Here, ten years later, we get the edition for the people-- the people's edition of the book.

GUEST: Oh, I see.

APPRAISER: And... you've got some dramatic plates. And I note that the binding-- it's been carefully preserved. It's been re-backed. The value of these three volumes is considerably less than the large folio,

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: but the value of these three volumes at auction is around $10,000.

GUEST: Oh, really? Wow. That's amazing.