Audubon, Brown Pelican, Plate 421

AUDUBON, John James (1785 - 1851).
Brown Pelican, Plate 421.
Aquatint engraving with original hand color.
London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.
25" x 37 1/2" sheet, 37" x 49 1/2" framed.

Comparable: Mid-Hudson, 2015 - $107,360. Christie's, 2004 - $77,675.

"The Brown Pelican, which is one of the most interesting of our American birds... Look at them as they fly over the bay; listen to the sound of the splash they make as they drive their open bills, like a pock-net, into the sea, to scoop up their prey; and snatch up the frightened fishes that strive to escape from them. Down they go, again and again. What voracious creatures they are!" (Audubon's Ornithological Biography, 1831).