John James Audubon arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland, in November of 1826. On December 16, Audubon received an invitation from the Wernerian Society to demonstrate his technique for drawing plants and birds. Robert Jameson (1774-1854), a professor at the University of Edinburgh, founded the society for scientists in 1808 and named it in honor of geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817). The society last met in 1858, four years after the death of Jameson.
The bird that Audubon drew for his demonstration at the Wernerian Society was the Great White Heron (Plate 281). If Audubon impressed only one person with his drawing, it needed to be zoologist Patrick Neill (1776-1851). From Neill, Audubon learned about a printer in Edinburgh by the name of William Home Lizars. After Audubon ambled through the streets and alleys of “Auld Reekie” to find and meet Lizars and show him his drawings of birds, Audubon sent word to his wife Lucy: “They will be brought up and finished in such superb style as to Eclipse all of the Kind in Existence.” The paper that Lizars agreed to use to bring up and finish the prints was watermark double elephant (28” x 39”).
The drawing that Lizars chose to engrave first was the Wild Turkey. After Lizars completed the engraving and colored the print of the bird, Audubon paid Lizars for the print and for the prints of four more birds that he called Plates. After the Wild Turkey came the Yellow-billed cuckoo (Plate 2), Prothonotary warbler (Plate 3), Purple finch (Plate 4), and Bonaparte’s flycatcher (Plate 5). While Audubon acknowledged that the prints were “rather bulky,” his heart “was always bent on the size of life.”
Audubon completed his prospectus for Birds of America on March 17, 1827. Audubon decided to package five prints of “size of life” birds or Plates into one Number, of which there would be a large bird, a medium-sized bird and three small birds. Audubon priced each Number at two guineas payable upon delivery. Those willing to subscribe to Birds of America were scheduled to receive all of the Numbers that would contain 400 Plates. The charge for a subscription was set at £175 or the equivalent of $1,000.
On April 5, Lizars produced a copy of the first Number. By May 16, Lizars produced another 49 copies of the first Number that Audubon paid for and sold. Lizars then produced another 50 copies in anticipation of Audubon gaining more subscribers. Audubon was able to sell all but one copy in his visits to Northumberland, Newcastle, York, Leeds, Manchester, and Liverpool.
In June, Lizars lost a number of printers to a rival publisher who hired them away to produce the prints for the book that Prideaux John Selby (1788-1867) titled Illustrations of British Ornithology. Those remaining with Lizars went on strike for comparable wages after completing Number II of Birds of America. The savior of Birds of America was Robert Havell Sr. at 79 Newman St. in the Marylebone district of London. Havell agreed to print Birds of America believing that the drawings would give his son, Robert Havell Jr., an ideal chance to showcase his skills with the aquatint process of engraving. Audubon not only received from Robert Havell and his son better quality prints, but also was charged a lower rate than what he had paid Lizars.
On August 9, Audubon recorded: “This day seventy sets have been distributed; yet the number of my subscribers has not increased; on the contrary, I have lost some.” Then on Aug. 26, King George IV (1762-1830) played his large part in sealing the fate of Birds of America by subscribing to the publication with his “particular Patronage, Protection, and Approbation.”