Artists have sometimes frowned upon this combination of aquatint with other forms of engraving, especially when executed with the burin, for "like the permanent misery of a quarrelling married couple, they may ruin everything with discord"; but any such lack of harmony, when not overcome by Havell's skill, was usually completely subdued by the color which was subsequently applied to the printed sheet. This is seen by a comparison of the plain proof of such an elaborate plate as that of the rattlesnake attacking the mocking birds (Plate xxi) with the result attained in the finished impression. In replying to a criticism of Havell's work in 1830, Audubon expressed his conviction that "no birds were ever so beautifully and softly represented on copper," and any hardness, which his plates rarely showed, was not due to aquatinting, the inherent quality of which is softness. To quote our authority again:
In Havell's hands aquatint gave the essential structure of forms by a judicious use of the process called "feathering." This he often did upon the bare copper plate without a ground, allowing the acid to bite its own granular surface. In this way he produced the soft gradations and telling accents so necessary to the portrayal of birds, but by a further judicious use of line the accurate forms of both bird and plant life were given with great force and delicacy.
When Audubon first proposed to present the Congressional Library at Washington with a copy of his Birds, he asked Havell to do all the coloring himself; Havell
colored his prints in the usual manner by flowing washes of pure water-color tints over the monochrome proof which was printed from the copper plate. In this phase of the process the great charm of his genuine talent for water-color painting asserted itself. Aside from the first crude washes, put on by artists or colorists employed for the purpose, he himself applied the salient tones and all the more delicate tints.
Much misunderstanding has arisen in regard to the engraving and publication of Audubon's earlier plates owing to the complex relations which existed between Lizars, the two Havells of the same name, and the naturalist himself; this involved the reissue of the first two numbers of the work, and a confusing series of legends upon the plates themselves, occasioned partly by a division of labor between father and son, and by the death of Robert Havell, Senior, in 1832. The errors into which some commentators have fallen, however, are due to their examination of but one set of plates. The account which follows is based upon a collation of complete copies at the British Museum, the Radcliffe Library, Oxford, the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, and the Boston Society of Natural History, and of numerous scattered plates. Lizars engraved the first ten plates only of the large folio, but before the summer of 1827 a considerable number of these early impressions had been distributed. The Havells, as we have seen, started the work anew, and Robert, the younger, retouched the greater part of Lizars' plates, so that their reissue in London constitutes for the bibliophile a second, and in some cases a third, edition. Moreover, the plates which were eventually executed by the younger Havell, to the number of 425, were repeatedly printed from to meet the requirements of new subscribers; on such occasions errors were corrected, minor changes in the artist's or engraver's name introduced, and the nomenclature of the birds and plants more or less completely revised. Frequently the Whatman water-marks, or, indirectly, Audubon's titles, postdate the year of publication as printed on the plate itself. Conflicting legends, particularly on the earlier plates, which have often puzzled collectors, are mainly due to one or another of the conditions named. Nearly every plate underwent alterations of some sort, but the various legends show conclusively whether the print belongs to a first or a subsequent impression. In the British Museum copy, the younger Havell's first independent legend appears on Plate lxxvi (Virginia Partridge), as "Engraved, Printed, & Coloured by R. Havell Junr. 1830." The word "London" was later added, but was eventually discarded. After the senior Havell's death in 1832, the son naturally dropped the suffix from his own name; thereafter his brief designation of name and date became gradually stereotyped. It should be noticed, however, that when Robert Havell needed to reprint from plates which were executed before his father's death, he would frequently remove only the "Junior," and let the original date stand, so that legends like the following are not uncommon: "Engraved, Printed, & Coloured by R. Havell, —— London—1831"; to avoid the lacuna, designation of place and date were, at times, erased also. The naturalist's name underwent a different evolution on the plates, but after 1830, the date of his election to membership in the Royal Society, his designation gradually settled into the phrase: "Drawn from nature by J.J. Audubon, F.L.S. F.R.S." (as in Plate lxxxi, 1830); accordingly, all plates which bear these titles, but an earlier date, are second or later editions. The previous hints, with examples to be given presently, will enable collectors to determine whether a given plate is a first or subsequent impression.
PLATE CCCI
Canvas backed Duck
FULIGULA VALLISNERIA, Steph.
1 2 Male, 3 Female View of Baltimore
Drawn from nature by J.J. Audubon F.R.S. F.L.S. Engraved Printed & Coloured by R. Havell. 1836
Lizars' first edition of plates, Numbers i to x, bore no dates, and, so far as known, the first date of the entire series was "1828," which was added to Plate 31 (the White-headed Eagle), but was erased from later issues. When Robert Havell, Junior, retouched Lizar's engraving of the Turkey Hen (No. II, Plate vi), he added the date "1829," but in a third or later edition the name was changed and the date removed. This same date appears also on the retouched Plate ii, of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and on that of the Purple Grackle or Crow Blackbird (Plate vii). A curious error crept into the first impressions of the former plate, which was mislabeled "Black-billed Cuckoo," a bird then recognized as quite distinct.[160] Plates xxxi to lxxv (1828-29) were all dated in the first issue, and bore the names of both Havells; the legends are: "Engraved, Printed & Coloured by R. Havell & Son, London, 1828," and "Engraved by Robt. Havell, Junr. Printed & Coloured by R. Havell Senr. London, 1828," or "1829" (British Museum copy), but when later printed by Robert, the younger, the dates were erased. All subsequent dating of the plates was somewhat irregular until 1834 (Plate ccii), but from that point to the end of the series, the year of issue was consistently added to each plate. Ornithologists are specially interested in the time of publication, since forty-seven new specific names occur on Audubon's large plates, and should date from them and not from the letterpress which followed.