Description
Dryocopus pileatus
Flora: fox grapes or red grapes, Vitis labrusca, or V. palmata
Print size: 26 1/4" x 39 1/4"; image size: 24 1/2" x 37"
Princeton Audubon Limited Edition - produced 1985
Next to the rare ivory-billed, the pileated is the largest of all North American woodpeckers. This plate, a combination of pencil, ink, watercolor, and tempera, is based on a painting probably executed in 1829 at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, and considered to be one of Audubon's finest works.
He wrote, "When followed [the pileated woodpecker] always alights on the tallest branches or trunks of trees, removes to the side farthest off, from which it every moment peeps, as it watches you progress in silence." Audubon also wrote: "The observation of many years has convinced me, that Woodpeckers of all sorts have the bill longer when just fledged than at any future period of their life, and that through use it becomes not only shorter, but also much harder, stronger, and sharper."
EHJ
Princeton Audubon prints are direct-camera facsimile lithographs of the Robert Havell Jr. (1793-1878) engravings for The Birds of America (1827-38). Princeton's Double elephant Folio prints are issued in limited editions of 500 or 1500 prints. All are numbered and have a seal in the bottom margin to demonstrate their authenticity.
Printed on heavy Mohawk paper that is recommended by the Library of Congress for archives, the paper is specially toned to match the average paper color of the antique originals.
Item Number:
1718
