Audubon's Fifty Best Meets State-of-the-Art Digital Imaging in Unprecedented Offering.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 1999--

Kenyon Oppenheimer, Inc. Announces the Oppenheimer-Field Museum

Edition; Full-Sized Double Elephant Folio Prints Produced Through a

Remarkable Process

In a rare and unprecedented offering, fifty of the most historically important ornithological prints from Chicago's renowned The Field Museum's prized John James Audubon collection have been selected for a new facsimile edition using the highest resolution digital imaging technology. Licensed by Kenyon Oppenheimer, Inc., the nation's pre-eminent gallery specializing in the original works of Audubon and the art of natural history, this special offering combines one of the finest Audubon folios in existence with history-making advances in the printing industry. Production of the Oppenheimer-Field Museum Edition is expected to take two years to complete at a cost of nearly $1 million.

Transported under tight security from The Field Museum to the Black Box Collotype fine art printing company in Chicago, the 26 X 39 inch double elephant folios are scanned directly from the original engraving, the first step in this unique process. Traditional printing methods work from images that are scanned from a photograph, rather than the Oppenheimer-Field Museum Edition, which is made directly from the original. Before a finished print is deemed acceptable, as many as ten steps, or proofing stages, and exacting color correction are involved.

Joel Oppenheimer, President, Kenyon Oppenheimer, Inc., and Ben Williams, librarian, The Field Museum who are overseeing the facsimile, say this Edition is the first to achieve an esthetic quality that is comparable to the originals dating to the early-19th century. "We absolutely guarantee that even the most discriminating collector will be astonished at the level of quality we have achieved. The rarity of these prints and the extraordinary results insure their collectibility," said Oppenheimer. "It is with utmost confidence that The Field Museum and Kenyon Oppenheimer are putting our names on this collection."

The Field Museum's Collection One Of The Finest In The World

The Field Museum's copy of The Birds of America is without question one of the finest Audubon folios in the world. Experts hail its color as unsurpassed and it is one of only two sets to exist that has an additional 13 prints that were originally engraved on the "wrong" copperplates. The engraver, Havell, corrected these discrepancies by overprinting the misplaced birds on the prints where they should have appeared in the first place. One of these composites, the Baltimore Oriole, is included in this facsimile edition.

Librarian Williams has no reservation about licensing the fifty prints from the museum collection to Kenyon Oppenheimer in part because the production process will start with such magnificently colored copies, "This is going to be the best, most precise, true and accurate edition based on my 20 years of studying historic prints, said Williams. "The quality is dead-on and collectors will be astonished to see anything of this quality, because it hasn't been available until now. In the current wave of technology, the results that I am seeing are revolutionary."

Printing Process Makes Oppenheimer-Field Museum Edition Possible

The Oppenheimer-Field Museum Edition is utilizing the cutting-edge technology of digital Iris printing. To make one print using the Iris process takes approximately one hour, compared to standard offset press printers that can turn out more than one thousand prints per hour. Michael Intrator, general manager, technical director, Black Box Collotype, which specializes in high-end boutique printing for the fine and decorative art market, explains that the Iris printing method is the ideal medium for production of the Oppenheimer-Field Museum Edition because it is being printed on Somerset Satin Radiant White 330 Gsm 100 percent rag acid-free archival paper which is very similar to paper used in the original engravings.

"In addition to using the Somerset Satin paper stock, we are using water-based dyes that are a virtual match to the originals which were made from water color pigments. Visually, they are almost identical, said Intrator. "Combining all of these elements, and using a very high-resolution scan, we are capturing the brilliant colors, crispness of the image, and the original engraved lines with exceptional results. It is the qualities of the 3-D's - digital input, digital manipulation, and digital output which add up to the superb results," Intrator explained.

Special Pre-Publication Pricing

For collectors and Audubon enthusiasts who have always wanted to own an original engraving but couldn't afford to, Oppenheimer insists this is an investment opportunity not to be overlooked. Says Oppenheimer, only 150 sets will be made, "The rarity of these prints coupled with a special pre-publication pricing offers early participants a tremendous value based on the current established market for other facsimile prints which are of lesser quality. The future value of these prints is very likely to dramatically exceed the offering price," Oppenheimer predicts.

Individual plates will be offered for an initial price of $1,500 each, which is less than half the cost of the same images of a current collectible facsimile Audubon edition which was published in Amsterdam in 1971. The original engravings of these images are sold in the Oppenheimer Gallery in Chicago ranging in price from $25,000 to $150,000. The initial offering of the complete sets is priced at $25,000 ($500 per print). The 50 plates will be issued over the upcoming 18 months in lots of ten prints each. Oppenheimer expects the first ten facsimile images to be available for delivery October 12, 1999.

For more information about the Oppenheimer-Field Museum Edition, you are invited to visit the Kenyon Oppenheimer, Inc. website at www.audubonart.com, or call 312-642-5300. Visitors are welcome to browse the gallery located at 410 N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Established in 1969, Kenyon Oppenheimer, Inc. is dedicated to the connoisseurship of collecting and to preserving the art of natural history and the significant contributions of the explorers who have recorded the flora and fauna of the past three centuries.