Audubon Aquatint, Pinnated Grouse, Plate 186.

AUDUBON, John James (1785 - 1851).
Pinnated Grouse, Plate 186.
Aquatint engraving with original hand color.
London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.
26 1/4” x 38 1/2” sheet.

Comparables: Christie's, 2004 - $26,290; Arader Galleries, 2021 - $14,400.

“When I first removed to Kentucky, the Pinnated Grouse were so abundant, that they were held in no higher estimation as food than the most common flesh, and no “hunter of Kentucky” deigned to shoot them. They were, in fact, looked upon with more abhorrence than the Crows are at present in Massachusetts and Maine, on account of the mischief they committed among the fruit trees of the orchards during winter, when they fed on their buds, or while in the spring months they picked up the grain in the fields.” - (Audubon's Ornithological Biography, 1831).