The "ottoman" in which Field Museum's copy of The Birds of America was stored. Inside are four drawers designed to completely encase 

 and protect the four volumes of the set. sww 



10 



bird figures that appear in his plates, but a few were 

 painted by his son John and by some of the artists who 

 assisted him. Many of the habitat backgrounds, land- 

 scapes, and plants were painted by these assistants, 

 either directly on Audubon's paintings of the birds or 

 sometimes separately. Backgrounds painted separately in 

 this manner were supplied along with the bird paintings 

 to the engraver, who combined them in accordance with 

 Audubon's instructions to produce the finished print- 

 ed plate. The copperplates were executed primarily 

 through a combination of etching and aquatint. 



Audubon found the search for an engraver difficult 

 at first. In 1826, having failed to find one in America, 

 Audubon engaged the services of the Scottish engraver 

 Lizars, in Edinburgh. Lizars engraved and colored the 

 first two numbers, or ten plates, of The Birds of America 

 but Audubon was not satisfied with Lizars' work. By the 

 following year, and to his great good fortune, Audubon 

 had arranged for the engraving and coloring of his plates 

 by the London firm of Robert Havell. Robert Havell, Jr. 

 lived up to Audubon's vision in his translation of the 



artist's original paintings into the hand-colored engrav- 

 ings so familiar today. 



The paper used, both for Audubon's original paint- 

 ings and for the prints produced by Havell, was made by 

 the British firm of J. Whatman. Since he had set himself 

 the goal of depicting birds life-size, Audubon found that 

 he required one of the largest sheet sizes of paper then 

 manufactured, measuring 29 Vi by 39 '/i inches un- 

 trimmed, a size called double elephant folio. The water- 

 mark in Whatman paper is extremely important in the 

 study of The Birds of America since it bears the year in 

 which each sheet of paper was made. Paper from at least 

 two of Whatman's paper mills was used for Audubon's 

 prints. The watermark on each sheet appears parallel to 

 the longer dimension of the paper and toward the corner 

 of the sheet. For example, many copies of the first few 

 prints produced by Havell bear the watermark: 



J WHATMAN 

 1827 



or: 



J WHATMAN 

 TURKEY MILL 

 1827 

 These watermarks, in conjunction with the dates of 



