Audubon Aquatint, Ruddy Duck

AUDUBON, John James (1785 - 1851).
Ruddy Duck, Plate 343.
Aquatint engraving with original hand color.
London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.
25 1/4” x 38” sheet, 38 1/2” x 51 1/2” framed.
Comparable: Guernsey's, 2013 - $11,590; Guernsey's, 2014 - $10,625.
Look at this plate, reader, and tell me whether you ever saw a greater difference between young and old, or between male and female, than is apparent here. You see a fine old male in the livery of the breeding season, put on as it were expressly for the purpose of pleasing the female for awhile. The female has never been figured before; nor, I believe, has any representation been given of the young in the autumnal plumage. Besides these, you have here the young male at the approach of spring.