20. Birds of the Pacific Slope by Andrew Jackson Grayson
Birds of the Pacific Slope by Andrew Jackson Grayson, a portfolio of 156 bird portraits, with a companion volume containing a preface by S. Dillon Ripley, a biography of Grayson by Lois Chambers Stone, and bird biographies and field notes on the plates by Andrew Jackson Grayson, 1986.
Andrew Jackson Grayson, who came to San Francisco just before the Gold Rush, was inspired to paint by James John Audubon's Birds of America. He vowed to extend Audubon's visual record west, to include the Pacific Slope of California and Mexico. Bequeathed to the University of California in 1879 by Grayson's widow, his paintings became an important holding in The Bancroft Library, but remained largely unknown to the public. Lois Chambers Stone of Berkeley spent several years researching the biography of Grayson that accompanies the portfolio. The publication of this long-overlooked masterwork has now assured Grayson of a significant place in the history of American ornithology.
As a result of the Arion edition, an exhibition of Grayson's original watercolors and related material, including the book and portfolio, was mounted in 1987 at the Oakland Museum and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D. C.
Format: portfolio, 25 by 19 inches, 160 leaves; companion volume, 12 by 9 inches, 436 pages. The types are handset and Monotype Van Dijck and handset Castellar capitals. The paper is Coventry Rag from the Parson Paper Mill, heavy weight for the plates, lightweight for the text. The plates were printed by Phelps-Schaefer Lithographics. The text was printed by letterpress. The portfolio box, companion volume, and slipcase are covered with tan Dutch linen cloth with gold-stamped leather labels. Edition of 400 sets, $4,500.00. Available.
Illustrations
Companion volume title page and frontispiece, portrait of the Grayson family.
Portfolio of 156 plates, showing two works by Grayson.
Go to title: 19. The Big Sleep 21. The Constitution of the United States of America
The Edition
Format: portfolio, 25 by 19 inches, 160 leaves; companion volume, 12 by 9 inches, 436 pages. The portfolio box, companion volume, and slipcase are covered with tan Dutch linen cloth with gold-stamped leather labels. Edition of 400 sets. Price: $4,500.
The Condor Review
"One hundred and seventeen years after the death of Andrew Jackson Grayson, his monumental work, Birds of the Pacific Slope, has been published and his place as a major pioneer ornithologist in western North America is assured. In reproducing Grayson’s watercolors, The Arion Press has done an outstanding job, technically and artistically. The book accompanying the portfolio of plates is also lavishly published. This work presents the sum of Grayson’s work and our knowledge of the man himself, in a form that will probably never be equalled. Lois Stone and The Arion Press are to be congratulated for producing a beautiful work of artistic, historical, and scientific value."
– Robert W. Storer, The Condor 1987, Vol. 89, pp944-945, The Cooper Ornithological Society. Read the full review (PDF).