Books

New York: John James Audubon, 1845. Hand-colored lithograph by John T. Bowen of Philadelphia after a watercolor from nature by Audubon. Sheet: (21 1/2 x 27 3/8 inches). A sublime image of a bobcat from the greatest 19th-century work of natural history illustration produced in America, Audubon's "Viviparous Quadrupeds." This fine plate is from the Imperial folio edition of Audubon's The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which was produced entirely in the United States. The American Wild-Cat was the first plate produced for the book and it reflects Audubon's unerring sense of the dramatic. This is the Wild-Cat as he is encountered: fierce, ready to attack, and fearsomely beautiful. This first plate also demonstrates an aspect of the work not often acknowledged: Audubon had been persuaded to produce the prints using lithography rather than copperplate etching, as in The Birds of America, by John T. Bowen, who guaranteed that the fur of the animals depicted would be as fine as…

'Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America' is another notable work by John James Audubon, initially intended to complement 'The Birds of America'. It provides detailed illustrations and descriptions of North American mammals.