It has often been asked, how many complete sets of Audubon's folio of The Birds of America were distributed, and how many are in existence today. No definite answer can be given to either question. His final lists, appended to the last volume of his "Biographies" in 1839, and reproduced in [Appendix III] to the present work, gave the number of standing names as 161 (calling for 166 copies), of which 79 (with 84 copies) pertained to Europe, and 82 were American; inasmuch as 118 subscribers had dropped off, with incompleted sets on their hands, this brought the total number of original patrons at that time to 279, and the number of copies which had been originally ordered to 284. On the other hand, the following advertisement, evidently from the hand of Audubon himself, appeared in The Athenæum, under date of "London, November 1, 1837," and was reprinted in America a few weeks later:[164]
The number of perfect copies at present subscribed for does not exceed 190, of which upwards of 80 are subscribed for in America; and the expense of getting them up is so great, that not more than ten or fifteen copies, above the number subscribed for, will be prepared.
The Establishment necessary for its publication will be broken up when the last Number is coloured; and any application for the Work must be made to the Author, 4, Wimpole—street, London; or Mr. R. Havell, Engraver, 77 Oxford—street, before the first of May next, as after that time no subscription can be received.
Assuming that Audubon's final published lists, calling for 166 copies, were correct, and that ten additional sets were prepared, this would bring the total original number known to have been complete to 176, which agrees with an estimate attributed to Victor Audubon, who once expressed the belief that "about 175 copies" were in existence, of which about 80 were in America.[165] It is probable, however, that of the 118 persons who allowed their subscriptions to lapse, a number completed their sets from the residual stock, which must have been great, though the later plates would be the hardest to obtain; in this event the number of perfect sets of Audubon's Birds probably never exceeded 190 or 200.
The proprietor of a well known Philadelphia bookshop[166] has stated that during his experience as an antiquary, he has had personal knowledge of forty or fifty copies of the folio edition of Audubon's Birds in America, and he thought it probable that a single New England print dealer, in the course of twenty years, had broken up thirty or forty volumes for the purpose of selling the plates. This is not surprising, since from the sale of a single volume upwards of $1,500 might be realized in this way, but no reputable dealer would now think of breaking up an unimpaired set.
Mr. Ruthven Deane, who has compiled a careful record of copies of The Birds of America known to exist in the United States, recorded in 1908 that he had ascertained the resting-place of seventy-five sets which, with few exceptions, were complete and in good condition. "A set in the library of the Mechanics-Mercantile Institute, San Francisco, California, which had been there for some thirty years, and another set in the San Francisco Art Association, presented in 1894 by Mr. Edward F. Searles, Methuen, Massachusetts, were both destroyed by the disastrous earthquake and fire which visited that city April 18, 1906."[167]
Audubon's own copy of his Birds, the plates of which were naturally selected with the greatest care, was sold by Mrs. Audubon after the death of her last surviving son, in 1862, to John T. Johnson, of New York, for $1,200; the subsequent history of these volumes has not been traced. Havell brought with him to America a copy, every plate of which is said to have been selected by himself, and it is undoubtedly one of the finest sets in existence. It passed from the family's possession to the hands of the publishers and booksellers, Messrs. C. S. Francis & Company, of 554 Broadway, New York, who in 1856 had charge of the sale of all of Audubon's works,[168] and was later purchased by Dr. W. Gurdon Russell, of Hartford, Connecticut, who presented it to Trinity College, July 10, 1900.[169]
After recording the facts of the case, so far as they have been ascertained, the following extract from the minutes of a meeting of the New York Historical Society, held October 3, 1865, will be read with interest:[170]
The Librarian presented the following copy of a manuscript memorandum preserved in the first volume of Audubon's Ornithological Biography, formerly belonging to the late J. Prescott Hall,[171] and now in possession of David G. Francis, Esq.: