Description

Gorgeous, lively illustration of seven parrots represented feeding on a Cockle Burr. This was the only parrot species to make it into John James Audubon’s “Birds of America”, and it is now, unfortunately, extinct.

These parrots, once prolific and common, were already diminishing in numbers in Audubon’s time. The Carolina Parrot was a voracious seed eater, and would descend, en masse, onto farmer’s crops. Since the Carolina Parrot was extremely gregarious, they would flock closely together at all times. This made them easy targets for farmers with shotguns, who could dispatch several with one shot. This was one of the reasons that led to their extinction. The last one seen in the wild was in Florida in 1904, and the last one in captivity died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918.

This beautiful Audubon image pairs very well with the Ruby throated Hummingbird, for balance, or with the American Flamingo for a tropical burst of color. It also works well with the Brown Pelican.

The Princeton Edition was printed on heavy, acid free, museum-quality paper using specially designed archival inks. This is an “offset lithograph” – not a “giclee” poster or inexpensive inkjet print. It was created by highly-skilled printers using traditional printing presses, and up to a dozen metal printing plates were used in the complex process.

The result is a truly exceptional print of Audubon’s masterful artwork, unlike anything else available on the market. The printing is so fine that it is indistinguishable from the stone lithograph prints created by Audubon in the 18th century.  This is a fine art edition strictly limited to 1500 prints. All Princeton’s are hand numbered and bear an embossed seal in the lower margin of the print.

As seen in the New York Times.