SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Saturday, November 5, 2011

'Most expensive book in the world'

All of us who love birds have heard the name “Audubon” from the “Audubon Society” but do we know about his book “Birds of America” and its worth?
A gilt bound subscriber’s copy of American naturalist John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” - widely regarded as one of the greatest illustrated books ever produced - was sold at auction by Sotheby’s of London last year. The book - in the 'double elephant folio' 3 feet x 2 feet "It is one of the most visually stunning books in the history of print: The scale of the images, the originality of each composition, the brilliance of the hand coloring."

The Birds of America plates were printed in black and white and hand-colored afterwards, and made from engravings of Audubon's watercolors. The book contains 435 of Audubon’s hand-colored and life-size ornithological illustrations and is one of less than 200 original copies – only 119 copies are accounted for - produced by Audubon between 1827 and 1838.
It was sold to an anonymous collector bidding by telephone for $11.5 million, and broke the world record for a single book.
John James Audubon

One such copy is held by the San Diego Natural History Museum in California.
For a slideshow of some of the books Illustrations of birds -
click on the link below
http://www.examiner.com/rving-in-national/audubon-s-birds-of-america-sells-for-11-5-million-at-sothebys-picture#slide=26840261