Audubon Aquatint, Frigate Pelican

AUDUBON, John James (1785 - 1851).
Frigate Pelican, Plate 271.
Aquatint engraving with original hand color.
London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.
38 3/4" x 26 1/8" sheet.

Comparables: Arader Galleries, 2021 - $34,800 (Deckled); Arader Galleries, 2014 - $24,400.

This image has been a favorite for the great women decorators of the 1970's and 1980's.

"The Frigate Pelicans may be said to be as gregarious as our Vultures. You see them in small or large flocks, according to circumstances. Like our Vultures, they spend the greater part of the day on wing, searching for food; and like them also, when gorged or roosting, they collect in large flocks, either to fan themselves or to sleep close together. They are equally lazy, tyrannical, and rapacious, domineering over birds weaker than themselves, and devouring the young of every species, whenever an opportunity offers, in the absence of the parents; in a word, they are most truly Marine Vultures." - (Audubon's Ornithological Biography, 1831).