Audubon, Fish Hawk - Deckeled with uncut margins.

Audubon, Fish Hawk - Deckeled with uncut margins.
AUDUBON, John James (1785 - 1851).
Fish Hawk or Osprey, Plate 81.
Aquatint engraving with original hand color.
London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.
38 1/2" x 25" sheet, 49 1/2" x 37" framed.
Provenance: John Vicker Painter's Collection, Deckeled with uncut margins.

Comparable: Arader Galleries, 2014 - $164,700; Arader Galleries, 2019 - $158,750.

Comparing the great size of this bird, its formidable character, its powerful and protracted flight, and the dexterity with which, although a land bird, it procures its prey from the waters of the ocean, with the very inferior powers of the bird named Kingfisher, I should be tempted to search for a more appropriate appellation than that of Fish-Hawk, and, were I not a member of a republic, might fancy that of Imperial Fisher more applicable to it" (Audubon's Ornithological Biography, 1831).