Wings of desire: The bird illustrations worth millions

John James Audubon was an ornithologist and painter who was responsible for one of the most important, beautiful and expensive colour plate books ever published. Possibly the greatest bird artist of all, Audubon's The Birds of America was issued in Edinburgh and London between 1827 and 1838.

Audubon's "Great Idea" came in 1820 when he was 35 years old and just out of debtors’ prison in Kentucky. He would use his gift for drawing and affinity for birds to document the species of North America in life-size prints, and thereby restore his dignity and fortune. On countless expeditions, from Florida to Newfoundland, he shot birds with his flintlock gun and hung them on a complex system of wires to render them realistically. The result was 584 spectacular paintings.

The book's production cost Audubon a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, the equivalent of over two million dollars today. He raised the money himself, leaving his family behind for years at a time and attracting subscribers while lecturing on frontier life in Britain and America. People of means were prepared to pay large sums to satisfy their interest in the natural world; in a sense to 'own' it.

Audubon released prints every couple of months to subscribers on a pay-as-you-go model. The ‘double elephant folio’, which needed two people to turn its pages, took its name from the double elephant paper (67.8 × 101.6 cm) on which it was printed. It became a sensation and was purchased by royalty, statesmen and the leading libraries of Europe and North America.

John Gould was Britain's answer to John James Audubon. Although not ranked in the same collectables category as The Birds of America, in May 2018 Sotheby's auction house offered a magnificent collection of Gould's major works at an estimate of £700,000-£900,000. Christie's sold a similar collection in 2008 for £1,252,500.

Gould worked as a taxidermist for the newly founded Zoological Society of London, and in 1830 saw an opportunity for some private enterprise when he was preparing to exhibit a formidable collection of bird skins which had been sent from the Himalayas.

Gould copied Audubon's subscription model but opted for the new lithography process. Its results were superior to both copper and wood engraving, and allowed for hundreds of prints each capturing the artist's original delicacy and detail. It was a bold and innovative idea, although a young artist called Edward Lear had actually used it first for his own illustrations of parrots.

Edward Lear had an eye for landscapes and an ear for rhyme, but it was as an ornothological artist that he first displayed his prolific talent. He created 80 bird portraits for John Gould, beginning in 1832 when he was just 20 years old. For many, they are the world’s finest ornithological illustrations.

Lear's paintings were intermingled with the work of Gould's wife Elizabeth and other, often less accomplished, artists. He worked for Gould for the next seven years, contributing to the lavish productions which would make Gould a rich man. Ironically, Lear's own A Book of Nonsense is now extremely rare, with one of only eleven complete copies selling for £59,000 in May 2017.

One of Lear's biggest fans is naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough: "Lear’s bird plates, to my eyes at least, rank among the finest of their kind". Attenborough has a prized collection of all of Lear's colour plates, acquired over several decades after he became aware of his work for Gould in 1954.

Gould published books on birds from Britain, Europe, Australia and Papua New Guinea, and also chronicled the mammals of Australia that would soon be lost through human colonization and hunting. He is considered the father of Australian bird study.

Complete sets of The Naturalist's Miscellany, and even individual volumes, fetch thousands of pounds today.

Frederick Polydore Nodder and his son, Richard, partnered with George Shaw, the zoologist of the British Museum and a fellow of the Royal Society, to produce The Naturalist's Miscellany. It was later assembled into a 24-volume set after being serialised between 1790 and 1813. Shaw provided the text and the scholarship, while the Nodders contributed the superbly hand-colored copperplate etchings.

The Naturalist's Miscellany featured 1,064 illustrations of animals, birds, insects, crustaceans and fish. Complete sets, and even individual volumes fetch thousands of pounds today. In 2009, a complete 24-volume set sold at auction in London for $31,200.

Frederick P. Nodder honed his draftsmanship working on Captain Cook and Joseph Banks' Florilegium. He was made botanical painter to Queen Charlotte (who was herself a knowledgeable botanist) in 1785.

Following Frederick's death in 1800, his wife Elizabeth is credited as publisher on the Miscellany's subsequent volumes and his son Richard continued with engraving duties. Richard exhibited at the Royal Academy and became botanical painter to King George III.