{"product_id":"john-james-audubon-american-flamingo-detail-1838-porcelain-art-mug","title":"John James Audubon: American Flamingo (Detail), 1838 – Porcelain Art Mug","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe bird bends double because the page would not hold it. Audubon printed \u003cem\u003eThe Birds of America\u003c\/em\u003e life-size, on double elephant folio sheets about a metre high, and a standing flamingo is taller than that — so he drew it feeding, head down at the waterline, and the neck became the great curve that runs through the plate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe worked from birds he had shot himself in the Florida Keys in 1832, and he never got the flock he wanted; the small flamingos on the far shore were added from other studies. The nine little drawings across the top of the sheet are anatomical: bill sections, tongue, foot, the parts a naturalist would want and a painter would not.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe plate was engraved, etched and aquatinted in London by Robert Havell Jr., then coloured by hand, one sheet at a time. It is number 431, one of the last of the 435 plates, issued in 1838 as the work was closing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis mug carries a detail, not the whole plate: the neck, the head and the black-tipped bill at the water, with the distant birds behind. The complete plate is shown in the last product image. The printable field on a mug is about nine centimetres high; a sheet of almost a metre would shrink to a stamp, so the mug takes the curve the whole composition was built to accommodate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFine Porcelain — 10 oz. Dishwasher and microwave safe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn James Audubon, \u003cem\u003eAmerican Flamingo\u003c\/em\u003e, Plate 431 from \u003cem\u003eThe Birds of America\u003c\/em\u003e, 1838. Hand-coloured engraving with etching and aquatint by Robert Havell Jr., sheet approx. 97 × 65 cm. University of Pittsburgh Library System, Audubon Collection. Public domain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tazzarte","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58368464421195,"sku":"f5bc8f64-f84e-4aed-939f-f877e85f5bd6","price":32.37,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0816\/8475\/8859\/files\/d312e425-af2a-4ed5-907e-b502188b6cec.webp?v=1788641346","url":"https:\/\/tazzarte.com\/products\/john-james-audubon-american-flamingo-detail-1838-porcelain-art-mug","provider":"Tazzarte","version":"1.0","type":"link"}