A Bien Edition Reissue ?

By Ron Flynn  

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For many years, the question of whether there was a reissue of the Audubon Bien Edition has gone unanswered. No record or documentation of such has been found, and nothing definitive has been written on the subject. Yet, based solely on the appearance and quality of prints found in the marketplace today, dealers and authors have freely debated the subject from time to time. Perhaps as many say there was, as say there was not a reissue.

We know that production of the Bien Edition ceased in 1860, with only 105 sheets, containing 150 images, being issued. The failure of the Bien Edition resulted in a bankruptcy and near financial ruin for the Audubon family during the Civil War. Roe Lockwood & Co. of New York was the Audubon’s major business partner in the Bien project, and became the Audubon’s main creditor in the bankruptcy. They ultimately gained publishing rights to all the Bird and Quad Editions that the Audubons published in the United States, as well as possession of the original lithographic stones, and probably all remaining inventory of plates and letterpress.  As a result, the Lockwoods published editions of the Octavo Birds and Quads and Imperial Folio Quads between 1865 and 1871. Isn’t it likely they also published a reissue of the Bien Edition during that period?

Alice Ford, in her 1964 book John James Audubon, claims that the Bien Edition lithographic stones were shipped to a New Orleans warehouse and subsequently destroyed by Union shelling during the Civil War. Ford cites no source or reference for this claim, and no other author or researcher has uncovered proof of Ford’s theory. However, known historical facts make Ford’s claim less believable. Well before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, it was well known in the North that a Civil War was inevitable, and preparations were already being made. It wouldn’t have made sense to ship the Bien stones into the Deep South for storage, when they could have been shipped further North if their safety was ever a concern. Secondly, all other Audubon lithographic stones, as well as the original Havell copperplates,