the study: Bien Edition

The Birds of America, from Original Drawings

In 1858, John Woodhouse Audubon (with the lesser involvement of his brother, Victor Gifford Audubon, who was invalided in 1858 and died in 1860) began production of a new folio edition of  The Birds of America.  Relying on recent innovations in color printing, John hoped to reproduce the life-sized renderings of the original double elephant folio at significantly lower cost.  To that end, he contracted with Julius Bien to produce a new series of plates to be issued by subscription in 44 parts with a total cost (including letterpress) about half that of the Havell Edition.  Bien, who had immigrated to the United States from Germany, was a well-known innovator and practitioner of color lithography, or chromolithography.  According to Ron Tyler (who discusses the Bien Edition in Audubon's Great National Work, pp. 125-128), Bien transferred the images from the copper plates onto paper, and then onto lithographic stones.  By this method he was able to duplicate the subtlety of the engravings with a less expensive process.  To color the prints, Bien used additional stones.  Tyler writes, "Seldom using more than six colors, Bien captured the tonal ranges of Havell's colorists by varying shades, juxtaposing certain colors, and laying one color over the other.  In some instances, he finished off the print with touches of hand-coloring, indicating that the chromolithography was not fully mechanized."

Biens are not exact reproductions of the Havell images.  Biens may vary slightly in size from the Havells, and often include a pale colored background tint.  In some cases, Bien made significant changes, adding a landscape where none existed (e.g., Black Vulture, No. 13-1, Plate 3), or substituting a new background for the old (as is the case for the White-headed Eagle, No. 2-2, Plate 14).  The Barn Owl (No. 11-1, Plate 34), a dramatic night scene in the Havell Edition, is printed as a daytime scene in the Bien Edition by lightening the sky.  We have noticed that the backgrounds in the Bien version of certain prints may be lighter than that of the corresponding Havell (e.g., Iceland or Jer Falcon, No. 13-2, Plate 19).

Although considered rare, it is difficult to pinpoint either the number of sets that were sold by the Audubons, or the total number of prints that were made.  Although a prospectus for the English release remains, no American prospectus is known to exist.  In Audubon's Great National Work, Ron Tyler reports that John contracted with Bien for 250 copies of each number, but how many were printed, how many were distributed to subscribers, and what became of the remainder is shrouded in murkiness. Because of financial difficulties exacerbated by the Civil War, the Bien Edition was never completed.  The collapse of the project precipitated a financial catastrophe for the Audubon family, and probably hastened John Woodhouse's death in 1862.  Many of the plates that were not distributed to subscribers were eventually sold by or on behalf of the family creditors.  Two firms were active in selling the remaining prints, a Boston firm, Estes and Lauriat, and the New York firm Roe Lockwood & Son (which had contracted with John to act as publisher for the Bien Edition and which put out two sets of the letterpress -- a 5-volume set in 1860 and a 7-volume set in 1861, both reprints of the octavo edition text).  The Audubon bankruptcy appears to have left Roe Lockwood & Son in control of many Audubon assets including the octavo editions (both birds and quads) and the Imperial Folio material.  Roe Lockwood or its successor firm, George R. Lockwood, published one or more reprints of all of these editions.  It is possible that a printer other than Bien produced additional plates with the original stones; occasionally you will see full-page Bien plates that are missing a printer's credit, although all other legends and text intact.  We have seen several of these and know of others.

The Bien Edition is perhaps the least well documented of the major editions.  To provide you with as much information as possible on this important work, we are now hosting two articles on the Bien Edition by contributor Ron Flynn.  The first article provides a helpful overview of the project and includes a table summarizing plate-by-plate the errors in a copy of the Bien Edition that Ron reviewed. Ron's second article discusses whether or not the Bien Edition was reissued following the Audubon family bankruptcy.  You may also wish to check out some additional references.  Tyler and Steiner have more discussion on the Biens than other books, while Susanne Low offers an excellent plate-by-plate summary (plus comparison to both the octavo and Havell editions).

Collecting Issues

Biens tend to be of variable quality, and are often found in poor condition.  It is possible that at least some of the Biens on the market were rejected by the Audubons (or Bien himself) for quality reasons, but were later put into circulation by those trying to recoup the financial losses of the project.  We have heard greatly varying reports about paper quality; this leads us to speculate that some Biens may have been printed from the original stones by a different printer at a later time.  Ownership of the stones and leftover plates eventually passed to people outside of the Audubon family, and it is possible they, like John Woodhouse, perceived market potential for low-cost  folio-sized Audubon prints, and proceeded with projects of their own involving the sale of existing and additional plates. (See Ron Flynn article on Bien reissue for more information.)

Because the paper of at least some plates are acidic, Bien plates often show staining and may prove fragile.  Biens are also known to include many errors in the plate and part numbers.  For a detailed discussion of these errors and the  impact of quality and condition on the value of individual prints, please see Ron Flynn's overview article.

One other point worth making is that small Bien images can be found paired in their original full-page format or separated into half-pages with dimensions of about 25 inches x 18 or 19 inches.  Purchasing a half-page can be an  economical way to own an original Audubon bird image. Should you acquire a full page with two plates on it, we recommend that you frame it (or store it) without separating the two images.  In the long run, a single page with two images should appreciate more than two half-pages.

Bien printed his and Audubon's credit only once per page, even on pages that had two plates. This resulted in some loss of attribution if two plates on a single page were separated.   If separated plates were vertically oriented (taller than they were wide), the one originally on the left would end up with the Audubon credit, while the other would get the Bien credit.  With landscape oriented plates (wider than they are tall), the plates were stacked one on top of the other, with artist and printer attributions going beneath the lower plate.  If separated, the top plate would have neither credit while the bottom plate would have both credits.  We have recently seen several full page Biens that were missing the printer's credit, although in all three cases the artist's attribution was present.  It is conceivable these prints were done later by another printer using the original stones, but we know of no evidence or documentation suggesting that the plates were reprinted.  Because there is a lot of murkiness surrounding the number of plates originally printed by Bien, and barring evidence of an later reissue, we consider lack of the printer's credit to be an oversight on par with missing credits on octavo plates.  We recommend judging the value of such prints the same way you would judge any Audubon -- based on the attractiveness of the image, the quality of the printing and coloring, and its overall condition.

Finally, we must note a fact not generally well-known among collectors -- there are reproductions available of Bien prints.  We have a photo of one on our website (visit the mystery closet for detailed description and picture).  The sheet, which is good quality textured stock, measures about 20 inches x 26 inches.  This is about half the size of the original (a full-sheet print of a medium-sized image); the reproduction image appears to be roughly 70 percent of the size of the original.  We know of two specific prints reproduced in this series, the Common Crossbill and the Yellow Breasted Chat.  Even though these reproductions are not full-sized, it is an easy matter to trim them  to remove any text that was not part of the original.  Some collectors, believing the Bien Edition was never reproduced, and knowing that some plates were produced two to a sheet, could mistake these reproductions for originals, especially if they are buying prints based on descriptions and photos, rather than examining the prints firsthand.

Letterpress

The text for the Bien Edition was published in 1860 in 5 volumes and in 1861 in 7 volumes by Roe Lockwood and Son.  The text of both sets is identical to the octavo edition text of The Birds of America with the plates omitted.  Sets of the text are considered fairly rare.  We have a 7-volume set of the text for sale in the library.

link to another edition

Last updated 09.05.05