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Here we see Prime Minister Henry Addington (left), Charles James Fox (right background), and Lord Hawkesbury, the Foreign Secretary, as the three witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The skeleton of Britannia that rises from the pot, where a British lion is being cooked, is the result of the Treaty of Amiens that was signed on March 27, 1802. The Treaty brought peace between the French Republic and England, although it only lasted one year.

The artist James Gillray, and many others, felt the Treaty left Britain without many of the strengths she once had. By 1803, tensions were again escalating and in January, Gillray added to the flames by publishing this print. Note the papers being feed into the fire are inscribed: Dominion of the Sea, Egypt, Malta, and so on, which are some of the things England had given up. By May a declaration of war was laid before Parliament and the Great French War began all over again.

Harry Twyford Peters (1881-1948), California on Stone (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, inc., 1935). Graphic Arts: Reference Collection (GARF) Oversize NE2310.C2 P4 1935q

Ted Morgan, A Shovel of Stars: the Making of the American West, 1800 to the Present (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1995). Firestone Library (F) F591 .M865 1995

The American journalist Laurence Hutton (1843-1904) published his autobiography in four monthly issues of St. Nicholas magazine from December 1896 to March 1897, under the title “A Boy I Knew.” The memoir ends in Savannah around 1853, “when his father told him to observe particularly the old gentleman with the spectacles, who occupied a seat at their table in the public dining-room; for, he said, the time would come when The Boy would be very proud to say that he had breakfasted, and dined, and supped with Mr. Thackeray. …He did pay particular attention to Mr. Thackeray, with his eyes and his ears; and one morning Mr. Thackeray paid a little attention to him, of which he is proud, indeed. Mr. Thackeray took The Boy between his knees, and asked his name, and what he intended to be when he grew up. He replied, ‘A farmer, sir.’ Why, he cannot imagine, for he never had the slightest inclination toward a farmer’s life. And then Mr. Thackeray put his gentle hand upon The Boy’s little red head, and said: ‘Whatever you are, try to be a good one.’ And whatever The Boy is, he has tried, for Thackeray’s sake, ‘to be a good one!’”

In 1897, Hutton received the honorary degree of A.M. from Princeton University and published a hard cover edition of the memoir as: Laurence Hutton (1843-1904), A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs (New York: Harper, 1898). Laurence Hutton Collection (HTN) 3794.8.32

Unknown artist, Mr. Yates in the Characters of His Entertainment called ‘Reminiscences’, [1827?]. Hand colored lithograph. GC021 British Cartoons and Caricatures Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895

The life and career of actor Frederick Henry Yates (1797-1842) is closely tied to that of actor Charles Mathews (1776-1835). They met in the winter of 1817-18, when Mathews convinced Yates to become an actor. After a successful early career, Yates purchased and managed the Adelphi Theatre in London in partnership with Mathews, while also continuing to perform.

Mathews developed a one-man play called At Home, in which he revived each of his most successful roles in a single evening. Yates attempted the same format, which he called Yates’ Reminiscences, first performed in Edinburgh in 1827. The genre has been called a monopolylogue and this print shows the various roles Yates would play during the evening, including Mrs. Pry, Bob Major, Nathaniel the Cobbler, Peter Snick, Fleix Fact, Solomon Rushbottom, Mrs. Rushbottom, and Brush-flyettn.

For more information, see: Charles Mathews (1776-1835), Mathews & Yates At Home: Mr. Mathew’s new entertainment, being a lecture on perculiarities and manners entitled, The spring meeting … also, Mr. Yates singular report of a breach of promise of marriage … called Love among the lawyers, or, Courting in court .. to which is added, a monopolylogue, called Harlequin & Mr. Jenkins, or, Pantomime in the parlour … (London: J. Duncombe, [1829]). Rare Books: Theatre Collection (ThX) 3851.66.361

Frederick Henry Yates (1797-1842), Yates’ Reminiscences; or, Etchings of Life and Character: Consisting of Sketches from Life, Manners, & Peculiarities. As performed with the most unqualified success, at the Adelphi Theatre; including anecdotes of living characters, tales, and the six original comic songs. Of masquerading. Vauxhall Gardens, with humourous recitation. Smithfield Cattle Shew, with all the speaking. Pawnbroker’s shop. Humours of an election, with laughable speaking parts. Theatrical fund dinner, with all the speaking, imitations, speeches, &c. Also, A monopolylogue, called Mr. Chairman: embellished with a coloured plate (London: Printed and published by John Duncombe, and sold by all other booksellers [1826]) Rare Books: Theatre Collection (ThX) 3851.66.361

The Dutch-English artist Egbert van Heemskerck II (ca 1674-1744) is represented in the graphic arts collection by eight hand-colored etchings. We believe these are by Heemskerck the younger, although both father and son had the same name and attribution of their works has been questioned. Originally from Haarlem, the family settled in London and Heemskerck was briefly a singer at Sadler’s Wells.

William Hogarth, another eighteenth-century painter, is said to have been fond of Heemskerck’s work and may have used this series as a reference for his Fourth Stage of Cruelty, among other works. Like Hogarth, Heemskerck first painted the series and then, had the images translated into prints for wide distribution. The eight are all satires on eighteenth-century life, with animal heads on (somewhat) human bodies. The image seen here is a satire on quacks and quackery, offering a depiction of modern medical practices.

None of the prints are titled but the artist includes a poem with each describing the scene. Here are the eight captions (spelling is Heemskerck’s):

1.Behold how in the colledge hall, the surgeons and the doctors all, Are met in consultation wise, a carcase to anatomize: the master there displays his art, sagely discants on every part, and that with ears & eyes and nose, we hear, and see, and smell, he shows.

2.As you like this, young gentlemen, play truant if you please again, how often must I give you warning, to leave your tricks and mind your learning: and as for your part Hussy, you, (I promise ye) shall have your due, I’ll teach ye how to romp about, as soon as ever I’m gone out

3.See valiant Captain Snout appears, the drum beats up for volunteers, you that are weary of your wives, and willing to live merry lives, who from the Tally man woud run, and clutches of the bailiff shun, lift under him without delay, and enter into present pay

4.A barbers shop a medley shews, of monsters, wigs, drawn-teeth and news, while one is shav’d another bleeds, a third the Grub Street Journal reads. The master full of Whig and Tory, talks politics and tells a story, and swears he is not such a sot, but that he knows full well, what’s what.

5.Now gentlemen - see here’s a piece - I hope you’ll all bid up for this. Two Guineas - thirty shillings - twenty. Sure gentlemen that will content ye. Who bids? Fifteen dye say? For shame tis not the vaule of the frame. Sixteen is bid for’t - once - twice - thrice, sixteen - tis going at half the price.

6.The gin-retailers, (if there’s any) who can by a licence get a penny, are those, who in such manner use it, as if their study was, t’abuse it: who rules and orders never mind, whose shops you may at midnight find throng’d, as with maggots in a cheese, with punks & bunters — such as these

7.While thus the revelling debauchee, dandles his mistress on his knee, th’ old baud is reckoning up the score, of all that has been spent and more. In comes the monarch of the night, and puts them in a horrid fright, the lover swears, the lady shrieks, behind the door the bully sneeks.

8.While thus the revelling debauchee, dandles his mistress on his knee, th’ old baud is reckoning up the score, of all that has been spent and more. In comes the monarch of the night, and puts them in a horrid fright, the lover swears, the lady shrieks, behind the door the bully sneeks.

However, this etching, dated September 29, 1762, makes no mention of Hogarth. The scene depicts the last private meeting between British leaders (Cumberland, York, Bute, Fox, Bedford, Pitt, Temple, and Newcastle), before the signing of the preliminary articles of peace, which ended the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years’ War, on November 3, 1762.

Hogarth designed and published a very different satirical print in reaction to the politics of the day, which he called The Times (see earlier post). Also dated September 1762, Hogarth’s dramatic print shows Pitt fanning the flames of war, while London goes up in smoke.

Perhaps the publisher of the scene above thought he could ride on the coattails of Hogarth’s success but later, reconsidered and removed Hogarth’s name before the print’s final state?

Inscribed: Believe not every Spirit, but try the Spirits whether they are of God: because many false Prophets are gone out into the World.

This plate is a reworking of the unpublished Enthusiasm Delineated, engraved in 1760. It shows the interior of a Methodist meeting house, possibly Whitefield’s Tabernacle, in Tottenham Court Road. It is fun to note the preacher’s text is “I speak as a fool” (2 Corinthians, ii.23); the chandelier is inscribed “New and Correct Globe of Hell”; and the woman on the floor is Mary Toft, the Rabbit Woman.

The original Mary Toft attracted attention in the fall of 1726, when she claimed to have delivered several rabbits (one per day). At the end of November, she was brought to London to perform this feat but ultimately confessed that she had inserted the rabbit into her uterus.

English Credulity, or, Ye’re All Bottled. [broadside] London: Printed for B. Dickinson … , [1749]. London, 1749. Rare Books (Ex) Oversize PR3291.A1 E52q

Not quite fifty years after Hogarth published his Election series, James Gillray offered his own commentary on contemporary politics (one of many). This print was so popular that the large stock was exhausted in just a few days.

A thorough description of each character, human and animal, can be found by searching the title at: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database. In the meantime, here’s a synopsis of their research.

In the bed lies the statesman William Windham (1750-1810), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and War Minister in the first phase of the conflict with France; later he became Secretary for War and Colonies. Above his head is an olive branch bent down by the weight of a vulture, who says “Peace!” while killing a rabbit. On the left is Death standing on British trophies. One catalogue suggests a reference to Milton’s Paradise Lost: “Death Grinn’d horrible a ghastly smile, to hear His famine should be fill’d … “. On the extreme left is the Tower of London flying the French flag. Bonaparte is holding a rope attached to Britannia’s neck and a fat demon (Whig Charles James Fox (1749-1806)) is playing a guitar while London burns. Justice sits on a chamber-pot nearby. For more, see M. Dorothy George, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum, VIII, 1947.

William Hogarth (1697-1764), Four Prints of an Election, 1755-58. Graphic Arts, GC113 William Hogarth Collection

Plate I: An Election Entertainment, February 1755. Fourth state.

The Whigs are inside with a banner inscribed ‘Liberty and Loyalty’ and the Tories are parading outside with their own banner ‘Liberty and Property.’ Hogarth does not take sides. The print is dedicated to Henry Fox (Baron Holland 1705-1775), who was the first person to pay his money for the print. The man by the bottle of Burgundy, making a face with his napkin, is Sir John Parnell, nephew of the poet Thomas Parnell, who persuaded Hogarth to include him by arguing that it would help sell copies in Dublin.

Plate II: Canvassing for Votes, 1758? Sixth state.

Here the Tories are in the foreground and the Whigs in the background. The man in the middle is being bribed by each party. The ale house at the left is the [Por]tobello, named after the British naval victory over the French. Paulson suggests that Hogarth wants our sympathies to be with the pair at the table, reliving a heroic memory, and not with the politicians across the way.

Plate III: The Polling, February 1758. Third state.

Here is a polling booth on election day. All classes of men are being led up to cast a vote, described as an imbecile, a prisoner, and so on. Britannia is seen in her coach on the right, about to turn over because her coachmen are playing cards. All the nation’s efforts are directed to bribery and gambling, rather than for the good of the people.

Plate IV: Chairing the Members. January 1758. Third state.

Hogarth has the winners being carried on chairs but in fact, there was no “chairing” of the Oxfordshire election since the results were immediately referred to Parliament for scrutiny. The central man who is about to fall off his chair is George Bubb Dodington, the only prominent politician who went down to defeat in the election.

British Museum

These notes come from: Hogarth’s Graphic Works, compiled and with a commentary by Ronald Paulson. 3rd rev. ed. London: Print Room, 1989. Graphic Arts: Reference Collection (GARF) Oversize ND497.H7 A35 1989q

In 1919, Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky, 1890-1976) had his third solo exhibition at the Daniel Gallery, run by a former saloon owner Charles Daniel (1878-1971) and the poet Alanson Hartpence (1883-1946). By this time, Man Ray was losing interest in oil painting and the show featured airbrush drawings (called aerographs) and several installations.

One of these, called Revolving Doors, featured ten collages made from colorful construction paper cut-up and pasted onto white cardboard. Each collage was framed and hinged onto a rotating support, so that the entire ensemble could be spun like a revolving door. When Daniel asked the artist to give the audience an explanation, Man Ray wrote long labels for each panel. For instance, the Dragonfly label read in part: “The lozenges of different colored wills to ascension are a fairly accurate record of the creature’s struggles.”

Man Ray moved to Paris in the 1920s but continued to explore this series in a variety of mediums, including a pochoir edition published by Editions Surréalistes in 1926. The following year, Man Ray gave a copy to Henri Pierre Roché (1879-1959, who would later write Jules et Jim.) This made its way into the Charles Rahn Fry Pochoir Collection, and ultimately to Princeton University.

Man Ray (1890-1976), Revolving Doors, 1916-1917 (Paris: Editions Surréalistes, 1926). Copy 71 of 105. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2004-0007E

James Bretherton (active 1770-1781) after a design by Henry William Bunbury (1750-1811), The Dog Barber. La Francia, 1772. Etching with added color. Graphic Arts GC021. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895.

William Dickinson (1747-1823) after a design by Henry William Bunbury (1750-1811), A Family Piece, 1781. Stipple engraving and etching. Graphic Arts GC021. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895.

James Bretherton (active 1770-1781) after a design by Henry William Bunbury (1750-1811), Mutual Accusation, 1774. Etching. Graphic Arts GC021. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895.

“When once you’ve told & cant recall a Lye
Boldly persist in’t or your Fame will die.
Learn this ye Wives, with unrelenting Claws
Or right or wrong, Assert your husbands cause.”

The British artist Henry Bunbury has been called the Raphael of Caricaturists. A member of a landed family, Bunbury traveled in the elite circles of London, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and honored with an obituary in Gentleman’s Magazine at his death.

“His pencil never transgresses the limits of good taste and delicacy, and had he been under the necessity of pursuing art for profit, instead of amusement and pleasure only, he would probably have made a great fortune by the produce of his genius.”

For more information, see Hugh Belsey, Henry William Bunbury 1750-1811 (1983). Graphic arts (GA) Oversize NC 1479.B89 B45 1983Q.

These grotesques (figures with large heads) were invented by George Woodward (1760-1809) and etched by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) for the publisher Rudolph Ackermann. Several times Woodward refers to the caricatures as Lilliputians, referencing the small people of Lilliput in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. The forty-six horizontal strips mounted on twelve plates were meant to be cut apart and used, literally, as border designs in your home. According to Greco, the partnership created twenty-four sheets in total. The Princeton copy includes an additional sheet of smaller sketches in 6 vertical strips, dated May 20, 1805, not a part of Grotesque Borders as originally published.

Not long after Woodward and Rowlandson finished publishing their caricatures, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) wrote an insightful essay entitled, De l’essence du rire et généralement du comique dans les arts plastiques, in which he differentiates between the uses of grotesque comic figures. For an English language translation, see Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays (New York: Garland Pub., 1978). Firestone Library (F) NX65 .B38213 1978

George Woodward was a caricaturist from Stanton-by-Dale, Derbyshire, whose drinking habits are perhaps better known than his art. When he moved to London his inheritance had already been spent. More often than not, he provided the drawing of an idea to publishers and to other caricaturists, rather than a completed etching. He very sadly passed away one night at his usual spot in his local tavern.

In this print, John Bull is seen as a sailor wearing striped trousers, a sword in his right hand. He looks towards two figures poised on the beams, which radiate from a magic lantern worked by Napoleon. Other beams reach a bear standing on a rocky island on the horizon behind John. Napoleon says: “Begar de brave Galanté Shew - for Jonny Bull.” The two lantern-figures include a French officer, holding a tricolour flag in the left hand, and young woman. He says: “Here we come Johnny - A Flag of Truce Johnny - something like a Piece! all deckd out in Bees, and stars and a crawn [sic] on her head - Not such a patch’d up piece as the last.” John answers with a distrustful stare: “You may be d——-d and your piece too! - I suppose you thought I was off the watch - I tell you Ill say nothing to you till I have consulted Brother Bruin and I hear him grouling teribly in the offing.” (from M. Dorothy George, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum, VIII, 1947)

The Wiener Werkstätte or Vienna workshops were founded in 1903 with the backing of Fritz Wärndorfer to “make all facets of human life into one unified work of art.” Architects, artists, designers, metalworker, typographers, and many other artisans joined. Their motto: Better to work ten days on one product than to manufacture ten products in one day.

The primarily female textile and fashion division was not formed until 1910. From 1914 to 1915, this division published a series of twelve portfolios, each with twelve original linocuts of fashions designed by their members. Here are a few examples from portfolio number five.

Here are a few drawings illustrating Chateaubriand’s Atala from a portfolio donated by Princeton University Professor Emeritus and Chateaubriand scholar Gilbert Chinard. For the complete story of how he acquired them from the Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin at 6, Place de la Sorbonne in Paris, see the Princeton University Library Chronicle XXVI, no. 3 (Spring 1965) http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_26_n_3.pdf.

Mr. Vrin told Chinard that the drawings were by an amateur artist from Dijon known as Comte de Boulet, presumably executed around 1810-20 for an illustrated edition of Atala, ou les Amours de deux sauvages dans le désert written by François-Auguste-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768-1848). The edition was never published and Princeton’s two blue buckram portfolios housing thirty-two drawings appears to be the only remaining evidence of the project.

When Atala was published in 1801 it was an immediate success. Inspired by Chateaubriand’s trip to the American South ten years earlier, the story is told through the reminiscences of Chactas, an elderly native of the Louisiana territory raised with a Seminole Indian tribe. Chactas loves Atala, who is a dedicated Christian, and the novella contrasts their two backgrounds and religious philosophies. Chateaubriand describes the book as a “painting of two lovers who walk and talk in solitude; all lies in the picture of the turmoil and love in the midst of the calm of the wilderness.”

Boulet’s drawings have been exhibited at least once, in the 1976 exhibition at the Grand Palais organized by Hugh Honour under the title L’Amérique vue par l’Europe. Firestone Annex A N6754 .H762

To listen to a French reading of the story, see: http://www.litteratureaudio.com/livre-audio-gratuit-mp3/chateaubriand-francois-renede-atala.html.

Theophile de Boulet, Chateaubriand’s Atala, ca. 1810. Pencil, crayon, and ink drawings with gouache highlights. Graphic Arts GC100.

The Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca (Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca or ASARO) grew out of the 2006 Oaxaca teachers’ strike and the violence that followed. ASARO formed as a collective, no individual artist’s names are used, working in a variety of mediums to commemorate public actions and critique political responses. For instance, the print above documents the army’s use of helicopters to drop chemicals on peaceful protesters. Graphic Arts has acquired forty-nine woodcuts, stencils, and poster by ASARO, many as large as 100 x 70 cm.

http://asar-oaxaca.blogspot.com/

http://www.artslant.com/chi/articles/show/16050

A bilingual interview with ASARO was published by the Houston (Texas) Independent Media Center in 2008.

Here are a few segments: Retomamos la forma de asamblea, porque creemos en la posibilidad de recuperación de la fuerza comunitaria en el arte, y porque la asamblea es al forma en que los pueblos dialogan y toman decisiones basadas en los intereses colectivos. De esta manera, respondemos también ante el llamado de la APPO, conformar un frente amplio de resistencia civil. (We have retaken the form of the assembly because we believe in the possibility to recover the power of the collective in art and because the assembly is the form in which the pueblos have a dialogue and hold decisions based on collective interests. In this way, we respond as well before the call of the APPO to create an ample front of civil resistance.)

Proponemos, iniciar un movimiento artístico, donde el fin sea el contacto directo con la gente, en las calles y espacios públicos. (We seek to initiate an artistic movement where the final goal is direct contact with people in the streets and in public spaces.)

Creemos que el arte publico (diversas disciplinas artísticas) es una forma de comunicación que permiten el dialogo con todos los sectores de la sociedad y hacen posible la visualización de las condiciones reales de existencia, las normas y contradicciones de la sociedad que habitamos. (We believe that public art (in all its diverse artistic disciplines) is a form of communication that allows a dialogue with all sectors of society and which makes possible the visualization of the real conditions of existence—the norms and contradictions of the society which we all inhabit.)

For the full interview, see http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2008/06/64061.php

See also: Louis E.V. Nevaer. Protest Graffiti-Mexico: Oaxaca (New York, NY: Mark Batty, 2009.) RECAP: Marquand Library GT3913.16.O29 N48 2009

On January 1, 1799, Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834) published the first of eight plates designed by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) of the Cries of London. Rowlandson’s ink drawings were etching and printed by the Swiss artist H Merke (fl.1799-1820) and hand colored in Ackermann’s shop on the Strand. The cost was two shillings and six pence colored or one shilling and six pence uncolored. Rowlandson continued to add to the Cries and in 1820, the complete set of fifty-four prints was published under the title of Characteristic Sketches of the Lower Orders. Princeton owns two copies of Rowlandson’s original peddlers and street hawkers, pasted into albums.

Graphic Arts’ second set of Cries has the artist’s name added to the bottom of each mat.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), [Etchings from Cries of London] (London: Ackermann’s, 1799). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize Rowlandson 1820.01.11q.

see also:
Diana Donald, The Age of Caricature: Satirical Prints in the Reign of George III (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996). Firestone DA505 .D73 1996

Joseph Grego, Rowlandson the Caricaturist: A Sketch of his life, Times, and Contemporaries (New York: J.W. Bouton, 1880). Graphic Arts GARF Oversize NE642.R7 G8q

Benjamin Champney (1817-1907), New Public Library Boston, 1850. Watercolor. GC031 Benjamin Champney Watercolors Collection.

When most people hear the name Benjamin Champney, they think of images of the White Mountains. However, this American painter also loved his adopted home of Boston, Massachusetts, and sketched many Boston cityscapes.

Born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, Champney studied and exhibited in Paris during the 1840s. He settled in Boston for only a few years before returning to New Hampshire but remained active in the Boston art scene. Champney helped found the Boston Arts Club in 1855 and exhibited regularly at the Boston Athenaeum. These are a few of Champney’s watercolors in the graphic arts collection.

Benjamin Champney (1817-1907), New Boston Theater. Washington Street, 1850. Watercolor. GC031 Benjamin Champney Watercolors Collection

Benjamin Champney (1817-1907), Boston City Library, 1850. Watercolor. GC031 Benjamin Champney Watercolors Collection.

Benjamin Champney (1817-1907), Blackstone Square. Boston, 1850. Watercolor. GC031 Benjamin Champney Watercolors Collection

Thanks to the “Adopt-a-book” benefit sponsored by the Friends of the Princeton University Library this spring, and specifically to the donations given by Ruta Smithson in honor of Andrew Smithson and by Ursus Books, one of our Audubon prints has been conserved and rehoused by Special Collections Paper Conservator Theodore Stanley.

Plate 234 Tufted Duck (common name Ring-Necked Duck). Fuligula Rufitorques was drawn in watercolors by John James Audubon (1785-1851) and then, engraved, printed, and colored by Robert Havell, Jr. (1793-1878), completed in 1834. For a view of the editioned print in the copy of Birds of America at the University of Pittsburgh see: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/a/audubon/plates.html.

In 1827, Audubon approached Robert Havell, Sr. (1769-1832) to take-over the engraving of his watercolors for The Birds of America. His original printer, Edinburgh engraver W.H. Lizars dropped out of the project after his staff went on strike. Havell Sr. was joined by his son, Robert Havell, Jr. (1793-1878), who engraved the plates while his father supervised the printing and coloring. Health problems led to Havell Sr.’s retirement in 1828 and his death four years later, leaving the majority of the work to his son. Havell Jr. finished the final print in 1838 and the first edition of the book is often called the Havell Edition.

One of Audubon’s biggest complaints with Lizars’ first plates was the variation in the hand coloring between impressions. Havell solved this by creating a working proof or pattern print for each plate. Audubon marked up the trial proofs until one satisfied him and this was used by the colorists as a guide. In a modern edition, the artist’s approved print is known as the bon à tirer (BAT), which in French means good to print. Note Havell’s initials, added in ink on the center title, presumably to indicate his approval.

Howard C. Rice wrote in the catalog for a 1959 Audubon exhibit at Princeton University:

This is one of the so-called ‘Pattern Prints’ used by the workers in Havell’s studio to guide them in the coloring. Since two hundred or more impressions of each plate had to be hand-colored, it was necessary to establish a standard pattern for the workers to follow in order to maintain uniformity in the coloring … It is said that the margins of such pattern prints were often trimmed irregularly or otherwise mutilated, as a security measure, to prevent them from being stolen from the studio or surreptitiously sold.