The Metropolitan Museum of Art Coaster Set, Audubon Birds

These heavy duty cork backed coasters feature artworks from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. Artist, birdwatcher and conservationist John James Audubon (American, 1785-1851) captured North American birds' spirited energy in their native habitats. Audubon spent years studying birds in the wild, then exhibited life-sized watercolors of his subjects in London. Between 1827 and 1838, he supervised the creation of 435 related aquatints collectively titled The Birds of America that were published in Edinburgh and London. After returning to New York, the artist worked with J.B. Chevalier of Philadelphia to issue a smaller and more affordable version of his designs, adding 65 images to create sets of 500 hand-colored lithographs accompanied by descriptive texts. These were published in seven octavo volumes between 1840 and 1844 and can be found in the Museum's collection. Proceeds from the sale of this product are used to support The Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the world's largest and finest. Its collections include more than two million works of art spanning five thousand years of world culture, from prehistory to the present and from every part of the globe. The mission of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is to collect, preserve, study, exhibit and stimulate appreciation for and advance knowledge of works of art that collectively represent the broadest spectrum of human achievement at the highest level of quality, all in the service of the public and in accordance with the highest professional standards.