Audubon’s Birds of America: Baby Elephant Folio

Abbeville’s classic edition of The Birds of America is back in stock — in a striking new package. The Baby Elephant Folio presents all 435 of John James Audubon’s brilliant hand-coloured engravings in exquisite reproductions derived from the original plates of the rare Double Elephant Folio. Although many attempts have been made to re-create the splendid illustrations in Audubon’s masterpiece, nothing has ever equalled the level of fidelity achieved in this luxurious edition. Organised and annotated by Roger Tory Peterson and Virginia Marie Peterson, this volume is as informative as it is beautiful. Its fascinating introduction places Audubon in the context of the history of American ornithological art and also reproduces a wide sampling of the work of his notable predecessors and disciples, including Roger Tory Peterson’s own rightfully famous paintings. A new systematic arrangement of the prints, following the modern classification of species, and descriptive captions about each bird allow us to appreciate Audubon’s achievement in the light of modern ornithology.