Bien Edition - Antique Originals

Produced between 1858 and 1860, the Bien edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America is the largest and most valuable color plate book ever published in America, and the rarest of all John James Audubon folios. Printed by Julius Bien on double-elephant folio sheets measuring 26 1/2″ x 39″, this edition represents one of the finest examples of early large-scale color printing.

The Bien edition of The Birds of America was initiated by Audubon’s two sons, John Woodhouse and Victor Gifford, several years after his death. Collaborating with New York-based lithographer Julius Bien, they carried on Audubon’s legacy by producing his historic folio through the pioneering medium of chromolithography. In a similar manner to its Havell edition predecessor, the Bien edition was sold by subscription, beginning in 1858. However, production was brought to a halt by the advent of the Civil War and only 150 plates on 105 sheets were completed. The consensus is that fewer than seventy folios were ever completed, making the Bien edition the rarest of Audubon’s folios.