was bought by London dealer Michael Tollemache for £7,321,250, Mr Tollemache, who was bidding in the Sotheby’s auction room, described the 1827 work as ‘priceless’, Audubon painted life-sized illustrations of almost 500 breeds in the 40-inch-high book, which merited several mentions in Darwin’s The Origin Of Species,
only 119 copies exist, of which fewer than a dozen are in private hands, the sale also included a Shakespeare First Folio from 1623, said to be the most important book in English literature, which made £1.5million, David Goldthorpe, of Sotheby’s, said the two were the ‘twin peaks’ of the book world, he added: ‘to have these items in one sale is remarkable,’
having seen many of the plates in Birds Of America I have to say what a gifted and talented artist Audubon was, especially as you consider after being asked to draw every specie of bird in America he decided to make the drawings life sized, he made his trip, after his dry-goods business failed, with only a rifle, an assistant, and a drawing pad, making illustrations of as many birds as he could find, what talent.
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