GOULD, John (1804-1881)

The Birds of Great Britain

London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, [1862]-1873. 5 volumes, large folio. (21 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches). Dedication leaf, list of subscribers, lists of plates, 367 hand-coloured lithographic plates, many heightened with gum arabic, after Gould, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Hart, most lithographed by Richter and Hart, printed by Walter or Walter & Cohn, 2 wood-engraved illustrations.

Sumptuously bound in the publisher's contemporary full green morocco, boards elaborately tooled gilt, spines with raised bands forming six compartments, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt. Binding by Zaehnsdorf

Provenance: Bookplate of Russell James Colman (1861-1946), HM Lieutenant of Norfolk

A magnificent copy in the publisher's deluxe binding of the work of which Gould was most proud, here with the Snowy Owl plate in the desirable first issue. This work is "the most sumptuous and costly of British bird books" (Mullens and Swann). In a remarkable condition without foxing.

Gould was most proud of this work, and it "was seen, perhaps, partly because its subject was British, as the culmination of [his] ... genius" (Tree, p.207). The text is more extensive and the illustrations depict many more chicks, nests, and eggs than in Gould's other works: "there was an opportunity of greatly enriching the work by giving figures of the young of many of the species of various genera - a thing hitherto almost entirely neglected by authors" (Gould, writing in the preface to the present work). Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates and accompanied Gould on an ornithological tour of Scandinavia in 1856, was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the subject matter. The work was issued in twenty-five parts and was very well received. Gould's illustrations were all painstakingly coloured by hand, as he states in his Preface: "Many of the public are quite unaware how the colouring of these large plates is accomplished; and not a few believe that they are produced by some mechanical process or by chromo-lithography. This, however, is not the case; every sky with its varied tints and every feather of each bird were coloured by hand; and when it is considered that nearly two hundred and eighty thousand illustrations in the present work have been so treated, it will most likely cause some astonishment to those who give the subject a thought." The stone from which the Snowy Owl plate (in Volume I) was printed was dropped and broken at an early stage in the printing. Later issues of this plate show evidence of this and the early issue, printed before the accident, are considered more desirable.

Fine Bird Books (1990) p.102; Nissen IVB 372; Sauer 23; Wood p.365; Zimmer p.261; Mullens & Swann, p. 240; Isabella Tree, The Ruling Passion of John Gould, 1991.

Item #42721

Price: $85,000.00