Clapper Rail or Salt-water Marsh hen

Artist John James Audubon (American, 1785 - 1851)

Engraver Robert Havell, Jr. (American, 1793 - 1878)

Date1834

Mediumetching and aquatint on paper, hand-colored

DimensionsDouble elephant: 38 1/4 x 25 1/2 inches (97.2 x 64.8 cm)

Credit LinePartial Bequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965 and Partial Gift of Nelda C. Stark, 1973

Object number11.1.2.D.09_Clapper Rail or Salt-water Marsh hen

ClassificationsPages

DescriptionThis page is bound in Volume IV (11.1.2.D). Two brown birds with long bills and striped, feathered dark underbellies in front of high green grass.

Label TextThe Stark Museum of Art’s set of The Birds of America is unique. This set belonged to the artist. Audubon had it bound in five volumes. He arranged the birds systematically. This set contains thirteen additional composite plates, where Audubon made corrections. Only one other set of The Birds includes all thirteen composite plates. The volume is open to the Clapper Rail or Salt Water Marsh hen. Audubon had completed a painting of the Clapper Rail by 1832. He had his painting printed as a lithograph (see 91.100.22). For the double elephant folio, he re-arranged the positions of two birds and omitted the third.

ProvenanceArtist; by inheritance to his son John Woodhouse Audubon [1812-1862]; purchased December 7, 1861 by John Taylor Johnston [1]; by inheritance to his son John Herbert Johnston as of 1893; by inheritance to his grandson William W. Appleton [1915-2014]; as of November 26, 1939 (Harry A. Levinson, The Chaucer Head Book Shop, New York) [2]; purchased 1939 by Cornelius D. Ehret, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; purchased April 29, 1954 through (Nada Kramar, Washington, D.C.) by H.J. Lutcher Stark [1887-1965]; ½ interest bequeathed September 2, 1965 to the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation [3]; remaining ½ interest gifted February 1, 1973 to the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation by Nelda C. Stark [1909-1999]; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art | 1. See letter and bill of sale from John Woodhouse Audubon to John Taylor Johnston (object number 11.2.105.A-C) | 2. The New York Times Book Review, "Notes on Rare Books," November 26, 1939. | 3. Owned jointly by H.J. Lutcher Stark and Nelda C. Stark until his death at which point his ½ interest was bequeathed to the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation.

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