John Gould (Over 9,800 results)

A magnificent set of the celebrated Gould folios, opulently and uniformly bound in full morocco by Zaehnsdorf, among the premier London bookbinders of the age. The oft-reproduced illustrations of birds are among the finest ever executed. Published across six decades, the folios are seldom gathered together and presented in uniform bindings, and as such rarely come to market. John Gould (1804-1881), known as "The Bird Man", was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the son of a gardener. He trained as a taxidermist, in his early twenties setting up in business in London, his skill bringing him to the attention of the royal family (George IV commissioned him to stuff the first giraffe to arrive in England). In 1828 he was appointed "bird-stuffer" to the Zoological Society and "was soon corresponding with the prominent naturalists of the time,Sir William Jardine,Prideaux John Selby,William Swainson,Edward Smith Stanley (laterthirteenth earl of Derby), and many others, both in England and abroad" (Gould expert Gordon C. Sauer writing in ODNB). When, in the late 1820s, a collection of birds from the Himalayan mountains arrived at the Society's museum, Gould, perhaps influenced by Edward Lear's work on parrots (part-published in imperial folio in 1830-32), conceived the idea of publishing a volume of hand-coloured lithographs on a similar scale - and so the series of magisterial "Gould plates" was born. Gordon Sauer explains that, although Gould did not paint the final illustrations, "he was the collector (especially in Australia) or purchaser of the specimens, the taxonomist, the publisher, the agent, and the distributor of the parts or volumes. He never claimed he was the artist for these plates, but repeatedly wrote of the 'rough sketches' he made from which, with reference to the specimens, his artists painted the finished drawings. The design and natural arrangement of the birds on the plates was due to the genius ofJohn Gould, and aGouldplate has a distinctive beauty and quality. His wife was his first artist. She was followed byEdward Lear,Henry Constantine Richter,William Matthew Hart, andJoseph Wolf". When Charles Darwinreturned from his voyage on HMSBeaglein the autumn of 1836, he selected several scientists to describe his collected specimens, andGouldwas presented withDarwin'sbirds. "In January 1837Gouldpronounced a group of twelve birds from the Galápagos Islands, whichDarwinhad thought to be 'blackbirds, warblers, wrens and finches', as all one family of finches, with variations in their beaks and size. This was the crucial piece of evidence that enabledDarwinto come to his theory of island speciation. The 'bird' volume ofDarwin'sZoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beaglewas contributed byGould" (ODNB). All of Gould's major folios are collected here. The monographs on the toucans and trogons, "two of the most beautiful of his works" (Fine Bird Books), are present in the preferred second edition, both containing more plates than in the first edition. The set is enhanced by the fact that Birds of Australia and the Humming-Birds have their supplements. Two folio works were clearly not originally collected with the set: the Icones avium, or Figures and Descriptions of New and Interesting Species of Birds from Various Parts of the Globe (1837-38, 18 plates) and the work that was cut short by Gould's death, Monograph of the Pittidae (1880, 10 plates), a family of colourful, forest-dwelling tropical birds. Sacheverell Sitwell, writing in Fine Bird Books (1953), points out memorably some favourite plates: the Birds of Europe "is remarkable for the owls and cranes drawn by Edward Lear". Birds of Great Britain includes "lovely pictures of the homeliest of British birds; while fantasy and accuracy working hand in hand have full play in the fresh-water grebes and mergansers" (the beautifully imagined birds of prey and owls should also receive special mention). Birds of Asia "has some lovely kingfishers, and there are ten wondrous trogons in the first volume. There are sunbirds; no fewer than nineteen pittas; twenty-two woodpeckers, and an addition of fifteen parrots to Gould's century of those bird-comedians, including three Racket-tailed Parrakeets of surpassing beauty". The Humming-Birds is "the most stupendous of tropical publications", requiring a "new technical process, which was the result of long experiment in order to portray their metallic plumage". Birds of New Guinea includes the spectacular birds of paradise, the subject of a separate monograph issued after Gould's death by his old friend Richard Bowdler Sharpe in 1891-98. Birds of Australia was the result of an eighteen-month sojourn in the country, during which Gould collected hundreds of specimens of fauna and flora. That famous work is present here with the complementary volume on mammals. Gordon Sauer rightly calls Gould "the pioneer naturalist of Australia". As a concluding aside, Sitwell gives an amusing description of Gould's house on Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury - very much his avian HQ - where "artists and lithographers and [a] small staff of colourists were employed it is probable that no house that ever existed had as many dead birds delivered on its doorstep over so long a stretch of years". The set comprises: A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains. London: for the Author (1831)1832. First edition, first issue, with backgrounds uncoloured. List of subscribers, 80 hand-coloured lithographed plates by Elizabeth Gould after sketches by John Gould. [Anker 169; Fine Bird Books, p.77; Nissen IVB 371; Sauer 2; Wood p.364; Zimmer, pp.251-252]. The Birds of Europe. London: Richard and John E. Taylor for the Author, [1832]1837. First and only edition. 5 volumes. List of subscribers, 448 fine hand-coloured lithographed plates, 68 by Edward Lear, the rest by Elizabeth Gould after her husband's sketches. [Anker 169; Fine Bird Books, p.77; Nissen IVB 371; Sauer 2; Wood p.364; Zimmer, pp.251-252]. The Birds of Australia. London: Ta.

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. First. THE LEIGH-DORROS SET. Eight volumes (seven plus Supplement). Voll. 1-7: London: Richard and John E. Taylor for the author, [1840]-1848. Supplement: London: Taylor and Francis for the author, [1851]-1869. First edition. Folio (21 3/8" x 14 15/16", 542mm x 363mm). With 681 lithographed plates, of which 3 are double page; all hand-colored. Bound in contemporary olive morocco with wide floriate gilt borders. On the spine, five pairs of raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel. Number gilt to the third panel. Gilt inside dentelles and yellow-glazed end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Some scuffing generally, but an altogether remarkable set of a vast work. Scattered light foxing or offsetting (with the tissue-guards more generally tanned). Armorial bookplate of Stoneleigh Abbey to the front paste-down of each volume. John Gould (1804-1881) conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world's birds in a regal format. He is best known for his multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa. Following the success of his 1837 Birds of Europe, Gould with his wife Elizabeth -- the principal artist of the work, responsible for some 600 of the plates -- went, most unusually for the times, to Australia. They remained there for two years, with John Gould traversing the mainland as well as Tasmania to observe and procure specimens, and Elizabeth Gould remaining on the coast to produce the drawings. While there, he began to have the initial parts circulated to the 250 subscribers, but was not pleased with them. Upon his return to England, he asked subscribers to return those early instalments and to begin again. That project continued until 1848, describing for the first time some 300 species. As exploration of the continent continued, Gould saw fit to issue a supplement, again in parts, over 18 years. Along with the 1837-1838 Synopsis, the 1865 Handbook and the 1845-1863 Mammals of Australia, Gould's fascination with Australian flora and fauna is clear. The Birds remains the fullest treatment of the subject and -- especially complete with the Supplement -- a punishingly rare work to find. Chandos Leigh, first Baron Leigh (1791-1850) was a Harrow friend of Byron's and a poet in his own right. His father inherited Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire, which was visited by his cousin Jane Austen in 1806; it may well be the inspiration for Sotherton Court in Mansfield Park. Leigh was a friend of Gould's, and although he is not listed among the subscribers for the present work, he did subscribe to others of Gould's publications. The Supplement must have been added to the library at Stoneleigh by his son William Henry Leigh (1824-1905). The set came to be owned by one of the great American bibliophiles, Dr. Gerald Dorros, whose library in Jackson Hole, WY continues to grow. A pioneer of angioplasty, Dorros began collecting books only in 2000 and amassed well over 10,000 volumes. The sale of his ornithological books at Christie's New York (Dorros is a native of Queens) in 2017 (15 June; the present item lot 124 -- the most valuable lot in in the auction) was notable for its exceptional quality and completeness. Together the provenance of the set is sterling, a testament to the originality and freshness of the work. Anker 174 (Birds) and 179 (Supplement); Ayer/Zimmer pp. 255 (B) and 259 (S); Nissen, IVB 370; Sauer 9 (B) and 18 (S); Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 101; Wood p. 365.

First edition. A FINE COPY OF GOULD'S MOST IMPORTANT WORK, which was issued in 41 parts over 30 years and occupied more than half of his career. In the original publishers' full morocco gilt stamped binding. Provenance: Presented to the Right Reverend Mathew Blagden Hale by the members of the Church of England, and other Denominations of Christians of Western Australia, Perth, October 28th, 1876. With large presentation label, printed in gold, dated in each volume. Mathew Blagden Hale [1811-1895] was the first Bishop of Western Australia, and founder of Hale School. Gould started work on the Birds of Australia in 1837, but ceased this effort when he found he did not have enough material to work from in England. He and his family departed for Australia [where his wife had two brothers] and remained there for 18 months collecting new specimens in New South Wales and Tasmania. John Gilbert was sent to collect specimens from Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia. As Gould had introductions to the explorers working at the time, he also received contributions of specimens from Sturt and Grey. As a result of this intensive effort, 300 new species were claimed by Gould. AUSTRALIAN EXPLORERS' CONTRIBUTION TO GOULD'S BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA In May 1838, Gould, his wife Elizabeth, John Gilbert [their zoological collector], one of their sons, a nephew, & two servants sailed for Australia. On their 27 montsh stay in the Colonies they received assistance from all sides ~ the Colonial Governors and most importantly, the early explorers of Australia's interior. In Tasmania, the Goulds were looked after by the Governor, Sir John Franklin (of later Arctic fame) and Lady Franklin, who were greatly interested in the flora and fauna of the country. Gould and Gilbert explored much of Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands. In February 1839, John Gilbert departed for an eleven month stay in the Swan River Colony. Gilbert made further explorations to the Northern Territory with Ludwig Leichhardt, but during Leichhardt's overland expedition in 1845 from Brisbane to Port Essington was tragically killed by aboriginals. [Book - Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia. 1847]. In June of 1839, Gould began a journey with Captain Charles Sturt from Adelaide to "the Murray Scrubs" [the Mallee], returning to Adelaide in July, from where he visited Kangaroo Island, before returning to Hobart. [Books- Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia. 1833 & Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia. 1849]. Contributions of specimens & information came from all quarters. George French Angas contributed eggs and information about the Yellow- eared Black Cockatoo. [Book- South Australia Illustrated, one of the great Australian topographical view books.] In the course of his hydrographical voyage on the H.M.S. Rattlesnake, John MacGillivray contributed information about the Great Palm Cockatoo. [Book- Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, commanded by the late Captain Owen Stanley. 1852, Cape York area.] T.L. Mitchell, surveyor general of New South Wales supplied descriptions of the Leadbeater's Cockatoo (commonly known as the "Major Mitchell"). [Books- Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia.1838 & Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia.1848]. The last voyage of the "Beagle" was in Australian waters from 1837 to 1843. In 1841, Capt. Wickham, suffering ill-health, was relieved of his command by Lieut. John Lort Stokes [Book - Discoveries in Australia; with an account of the Coasts and Rivers explored and surveyed during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, In the Years 1837- 1843. 1846]. The task of the expedition was to survey those parts of the northern coast of Australia not already charted by Flinders or King. Accompanying them on this trip was the young lieutenant George Grey, whose duty it was to explore the land in Australia's northwest with a view to establishing a permanent settlement there. [Book - Jo.

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. First. "THE TROCHILIDAE OF GOULD IS HIS MASTERPIECE, AND MUST EVER REMAIN A FEAST OF BEAUTY AND A SOURCE OF WONDER" -- THE GODMAN-ELWES-CASARES SET. Monograph: five volumes in six (a volume of all 30 wrappers). London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, [1849]1861. Supplement: London: Henry Sotheran & Co., [1880-]1887. Folio (21 13/16" x 14 5/8", 553mm x 372mm). [Full collation available.] With 418 hand-colored lithographed plates (360 in the main work) in toto, heightened in gum arabic, with mineral pigments, oil pigments and varnish, often over metallic leaf. Collated complete against the lists of plates and against Anker. Bound in contemporary dark brown half morocco over pebbled cloth. On the spine, five raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, author and number gilt to the fourth, dates gilt at the tail. Marbled end-papers. Top edge of the text-block gilt. Scuffed generally, with some rubbing at high-points and a few patches of skinning and edge-wear. Foxing at the end-leaves of each volume, and mild even tanning throughout. Offsetting at some plates, but an altogether exceptionally clean set. Armorial bookplate of Frederick DuCane Godman to the front paste-down of each volume with the bookplate of Jorge Casares below; in vol. IV, a second armorial bookplate of Casares is above Godman's. With laid-in descriptions from John Howell in voll. IV and V. John Gould (1804-1881) conceived, in the generation after Audubon, a massive project: to illustrate the world's birds in a regal format. His multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa are celebrated for their plates, after Gould and Gould's wife Elizabeth, and by a quartet of the most celebrated natural history artists of the XIXc: William Matthew Hart, Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter and Joseph Wolf. The Trochilidae (birds of Central and South America), begun in the middle of his career and (the Supplement) completed only after his death, is celebrated by Sitwell in his Fine Bird Books: "The humming-birds are so beautiful in themselves that the ecstasy of delight into which they throw one should not let it appear that the Trochilidae, in aesthetics, is other than among the most beautiful of Victorian illustrated books. . . All in all, the Trochilidae of Gould is his masterpiece, and must ever remain a feast of beauty and a source of wonder" (pp. 39-40). As with his Birds of Australia, Gould, working from London, was dissatisfied that he had been complete, such that over 30 years after beginning the project he sought to supplement it. He produced only the first part (1880) before his death. The project was shepherded through the press (the expense taken up by Sotheran, the printing still done by Taylor and Francis) by Osbert Salvin and completed by Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909), who might be considered Gould's heir. Frederick DuCane Godman (1834-1919) was a founding member of the British Ornithologists' Union (publisher of The Ibis), best known for his work on Central American birds, most notably the 63-volume Biologia Centrali-Americana. Godman worked with Sharpe on this project, making this an association set. Godman's books were dispersed in 1921 by Francis Edwards; perhaps it was purchased by Quaritch. They, in turn, might have sold the set to Dr. Jorge Casares (1879-1963), under whom the Associación Ornitológica del Plata, the principal bird conservation charity in Argentina, flourished. In his obituary he is noted for his important library, as well as for his own contributions to the bibliography of birds, notably the 1936 Systematic Catalogue of the Birds of Argentina. The description of John Howell Books (434 Post Street, San Francisco) description (1960's?) reads: "A magnificent copy. Bernard Quaritch & Co. believe this to be the finest copy that they have seen--we heartily concur." Offered for sale at the Sotheby's New York sale of 15 December 2005, lot 589. Anker 177 & 182; Nissen, IVB 380; Sauer 16 & 29; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 102.

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. First. THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE SET. First edition. Five volumes. London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, [1862]1873. Folio (21 9/16" x 14 11/16", 548mm x 373mm). With 367 hand-colored lithographs in toto after J. Gould, Joseph Wolf and Henry Constantine Richter. Bound in contemporary burgundy straight-grained morocco by Riviere and Son for Sotheran (stamped at the verso of the front free end-paper of each volume) with a wide gilt roll border and the cypher of the Duke of Devonshire: double D's within a wreath, surmounted with the coronet of a duke. On the spine, six raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel. Number and order(s) gilt to the third panel. Imprint gilt to the tail. Gilt scrollwork and pointillé tools in the remaining panels. A gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Floral gilt roll to the turn-ins, with marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Spines sunned, with some bumping and scuffs to the peripheries of the boards. Old repairs to the lower edge of the joints. The end-leaves a little foxed. An altogether fresh set in a ducal binding. John Gould (1804-1881) conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world's birds in a regal format. He is best known for his multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa. Following the success of his 1837 Birds of Europe and the [1840]-1869 Bird of Australia with its Supplement, Gould responded to popular demand for birds of the British Isles. The Birds of Great Britain was Gould's most popular of his large-format multi-volume ornithological works, with the greatest number of subscribers. Gould's challenge was to circumvent the conception of British birds as ordinary or unremarkable. He had to bring the birds that circled overhead before his readers' eyes with freshness and striking beauty. The complexity of the scenes grew, with tableaux of nests, chicks and eggs joining the usual modes of depiction. Gould wrote in the Preface that he "felt that 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; and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest." The text is longer than in any of his other works, and many of the illustrations were prepared from freshly-killed specimens. Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates, was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the illustrations. William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire (1808-1891) was a lifelong supporter of Gould's. Unlike many members of the high nobility of his day, he was profoundly intellectual, winning the Smith's Prize for mathematics in 1829 (other winners include John Herschel and James Clerk Maxwell) while at Trinity College, Cambridge. He would go on to be the inaugural Chancellor of the University of London, and later Chancellor of his alma mater. He subscribed for Gould's publications, including the present work. Another set remains in the library at Chatsworth, the duke having subscribed, apparently, for two; our thanks to Ms. Louise Clarke, librarian at Chatsworth, for confirming this. Ayer/Zimmer p. 261; McGill/Wood, p. 365; Nissen, IVB 372; Sauer 23; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 78.

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. First. THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY SET. Five volumes. London: Henry Sotheran, 1875-1888. Folio (21 1/2" x 14 11/16", 545mm x 373mm). Vol. I: with 56 hand-colored lithographed plates. Vol. II: with 58 hand-colored lithographed plates. Vol. III: with 72 hand-colored lithographed plates. Vol. IV: with 59 hand-colored lithographed plates. Vol. V: with 75 hand-colored lithographed plates. With 300 hand-colored lithographed plates, mostly by William Matthew Hart; collated complete against the tables in each volume. Bound in contemporary deep-green morocco, with a wide gilt border. On the spine, five raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel. Author and number gilt to the fourth panel. Imprint gilt to the tail. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Rubbed at the edges, with some patches of wear along the lower edges and fore-corners. A little soiling to the plate of "Arses insularis" (vol. II, pl. 43), else an uncommonly fresh set. Bookplate of the Library of the Carnegie Museum to the front paste-down of each volume, completed in mechanical stamp with an accession number of 1862, and the accession date in manuscript: "November 22nd 1910". John Gould (1804-1881) conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world's birds in a regal format. He is best known for his multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa. Following the success of his 1837 Birds of Europe, Gould with his wife Elizabeth, most unusually for the times, to Australia. Gould was never fully satisfied with the Birds of Australia, and the present work is in part a supplement, given how many new species continued to be discovered in Oceania more broadly. The Birds of New Guinea is the most geographically ambitious of Gould's works because it chronicles the avifauna of many distant islands, which as Darwin had shown contributes fantastically to biodiversity. Indeed, the ambition of the work was such that at the time of Gould's death a little less than half of the 25 parts -- the work was issued over 13 years to subscribers -- had been completed. His assistant Richard Bowdler Sharpe, some 40 years his junior, completed the final 12 parts, and had at his disposal nine of his ten daughters, who worked as colorists on Hart's bright plates. Indeed, the birds of paradise so prominent among the species described in the present work were the subject of a major two-volume work by Sharpe alone, also published by Sotheran. The Carnegie Museum (of Natural History) was established in 1895 by the famous son of Pittsburgh, Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was a devoted Darwinist, and so books such as Gould's paralleled the museum's collection of specimens illustrating evolution and global biodiversity. The present set was sold by the museum to raise funds to care for their 22-million-strong collection of specimens and objects: Sotheby's New York 16 December 2022, lot 69. Anker 181; Ayer/Zimmer, pp. 262-263; Nissen IVB 373; Sauer 27; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books, p. 78.

First edition; 6 vols, folio, (55 x 35.5 cm); 418 hand-coloured lithographs, many heightened with gold leaf & other iridescent mineral paints, overpainted with transparent oil and varnish colours, after John Gould, H.C. Richter, and W. Hart, Kimbolton Castle book plates, scattered spotting to contents; contemporary full green morocco, spines elaborately gilt in compartments and on the 5 raised bands, boards richly panelled with neoclassical gilt rolls and fillets, gilt rolls to turn-ins, yellow coated endpapers, all edges gilt; some dampstain to the lower board of volume I, a little fading of the spines, very good condition. 'Gould's masterpiece. an incomparable catalogue and compendium of beauties' (Fine Bird Books). The first edition and a spectacular set, with the rare supplement, from the library of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle. Of all the bird families, the hummingbird held the greatest fascination for Gould, and most of the plates were drawn from specimens in his own collection, with the help of a pool of collectors whom he commissioned to hunt for rare or unknown varieties in South America. He exhibited the collection, which included nearly 2,000 birds from 300 different species, at the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851, attracting nearly 75,000 visitors and consolidating his reputation as one of the greatest living ornithologists. To illustrate the birds' iridescent plumage, Gould had used a costly technique of painting in varnish and oils over pure gold leaf, which he claimed to have invented but which he seems in reality to have borrowed with very little modification from the American hummingbird specialist William Bailey. Gould's claim that the subscribers to the Trochilidae included 'nearly all the crowned heads of Europe' (Tree, p. 164) was a slight exaggeration, but there is no doubt that the magnificence of the illustrations, and the Victorian vogue for hummingbirds, attracted a larger and more brilliant audience than all of his other works except The Birds of Great Britain. Gould died after the publication of part 1 of the Supplement, having supervised the preparation of many of the plates. The book was completed by Sharpe who finalised the text, W. Hart, who did the drawings, lithographs and colouring for the 58 remaining plates, and the ornithologist Osbert Salvin, who directed the general production. Soon after Gould's death his bird collection, which by then included 5,378 hummingbirds, was purchased by the Zoological Society, and is now part of the British Museum's natural history collections. Anker 177; Fine Bird Books p. 78; Nissen IVB, 380; Sauer 16; Wood p. 365; Zimmer pp. 258 & 263-64.

5 volumes, folio (21 1/4 x 14 1/2 in.; 54 x 36.8 cm). 448 fine handcolored lithographic plates (68 by Edward Lear, the rest by Elizabeth Gould after her husband's sketches), heightened with gum arabic, printed by Charles Hullmandel, tissue guards between plates and text leaves, dedication to Lord Derby, 2-page list of subscriber's and general list of plates for all 5 volumes in vol. 1, list of plates in each volume; minor marginal spotting (generally near fore-edge) to approximately 35 plates, 5 instances of very faint pigment offsetting to text, 3 plates toned, 5 plates in vol. 2 without tissue guards but retaining their brightness, Wood Pigeon plate in vol. 4 lightly creased in top and lower margins, long but expertly closed tear along lower margin of Woodcock plate in vol. 4 not significantly affecting image. Nineteenth-century half green morocco over green cloth, spine in 7 compartments richly gilt with raised bands (2 lettered and numbered), "Dutch Curl" marbled endpapers, edges gilt; extremities lightly rubbed, one short tar near joint of vol. 1 front cover, short indentation on front cover of vol. 2, a few light scratches elsewhere to boards. FIRST EDITION OF JOHN GOULD'S FIRST MULTI-VOLUME ORNITHOLOGICAL WORK, the second in his folio series. AN EXCEPTIONALLY CLEAN AND BRIGHT COPY WITH VIVID HANDCOLORING. As stated in the preface, "the Birds of Europe, in which we are, or ought to be, most interested, have not received that degree of attention which they naturally demand. The present work has been undertaken to supply that deficiency." The drawings of continental species were taken from specimens in museums and zoos in Holland, German, and Switzerland, which Gould had toured several times in the 1830s-at least once with Lear, who was the first and one of the greatest of the series of fine artists that he employed over the ensuing half century. "AMONG THE MOST REMARKABLE BIRD DRAWINGS EVER MADE" (Susan Hyman, Edward Lear's Birds). "There is no doubt that Edward Lear was the first person to understand the art of lithograph, and to use it to its fullest potential. It was a legacy that granted the fabled works of Gould their success and took them into the forefront of nineteenth-century illustration" (Isabella Tree, The Ruling Passion of John Gould, p. 43). REFERENCES: Anker 169; Ayer/Zimmer, pp. 251-252, Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 101; McGill/Wood, p. 364; Nissen IVB 371 PROVENANCE: Sir John Arthur Brooke (1844-1920) of Huddersfield, West Riding, Yorkshire (his Fenay Hall bookplate). His 20,000-volume library was sold at auction (Sotheby's, May-June 1921) for a total of £32,312 (approximately £1.5 million in today's money) L65BTH1A.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First. GOULD'S GREAT BRITAIN IN ORIGINAL PARTS -- WITH A SIGNED SUBSCRIBER'S RECEIPT -- THE PETERS-CALVERT SET. Twenty-five parts. First edition. London: Taylor and Francis for the author, August 1st 1862December 1st 1873. Folio (22" x 15 3/16", 557mm x 386mm). [Full collation available.] With 367 lithographed plates in toto, hand-colored and heightened with gum arabic, after Gould, Joseph Wolf, Henry Constantine Richter and William Hart. Bound in the publisher's green printed-paper-covered boards backed in green blocked cloth. All edges of the text-block untrimmed. Boards generally soiled (inksplotch to the front board of part II) and frayed at the extremities. The cloth-backing of pts. I, V, VI, XI, XII and XXV split and cracking; otherwise small splits at the heads and tails of a handful of volumes. Sporadic sunning to the spines. Scattered mild foxing, but the plates generally quite clean. Offsetting from a dozen or so plates, and a few splits. A totally unsophisticated set. Armorial bookplate of Robert Calvert to the front paste-down of each volume. Instructions to the binder tipped-in to the recto of the front paste-down of part XXV. Subscriber's receipt for (completed in ink manuscript) "W. Peters, Esq." dated London, "Dec 31" 18"69" and reflecting parts delivered "1866.67.68.69" To Part "9 to 16" of the Birds of Great Britain "£25.4.0" and signed as "Received Mar. 1. 1870/ John Gould" over an Inland Revenue one penny stamp. John Gould (1804-1881) conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world's birds in a regal format. He is best known for his multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa. Following the success of his 1837 Birds of Europe and the [1840]-1869 Bird of Australia with its Supplement, Gould responded to popular demand for birds of the British Isles. The Birds of Great Britain was Gould's most popular of his large-format multi-volume ornithological works, with the greatest number of subscribers. Gould's challenge was to circumvent the conception of British birds as ordinary or unremarkable. He had to bring the birds that circled overhead in front of his readers' eyes with freshness and striking beauty. The complexity of the scenes grew, with tableaux of nests, chicks and eggs joining the usual modes of depiction. Gould wrote in the Preface that he "felt that 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; and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest." The text is longer than in any of his other works, and many of the illustrations were prepared from freshly-killed specimens. Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates, was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the illustrations. William Peters (1807-1894) was raised at Betchworth Castle in Surrey, which was bought and renovated by his father Henry Peters, a banker. By the time of his subscription, Peters was resident at Ashfold in the borough of Crawley, (West) Sussex and a fellow of both the Royal Astronomical Society and of the Royal Geographical Society (FRAS, FRGS). Doubtless the set descended through his third daughter, Constance Maria Georgiana (great-great-grandmother to Queen Camilla), who married Archibald Motteux Calvert. The bookplate is that of her grandson Maj. Robert Henry Calvert (1912-1987). Acquired at Christie's London 6 June 2007, lot 21. Ayer/Zimmer p. 261; McGill/Wood, p. 365; Nissen, IVB 372; Sauer 23; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 78.

5 volumes, folio (21 x 14 1/2 in.; 53.3 x 36.8 cm). 448 fine handcolored lithographic plates (68 by Edward Lear, the rest by Elizabeth Gould after her husband's sketches), heightened with gum arabic, printed by Charles Hullmandel, dedication to Lord Derby, 2-page list of subscriber's and general list of plates for all 5 volumes in vol. 1, list of plates in each volume; most plates with light to moderate pigment offsetting to text (most prevalent in vols. 4-5), occasional faint text offsetting and marginal spotting to plates, caption on Snowy Owl plate in vol. 1 partially cropped, caption on White Crane plate in vol. 4 a trifle shaved, Tufted Duck plate in vol. 5 a little toned. Modern half green morocco to style over green cloth, the spine in 6 compartments gilt with raised bands, grey holland endpapers, top edges gilt, with Hatchard's stamp on verso of front free endpapers; foot of spine of vol. 1 rubbed. FIRST EDITION OF GOULD'S FIRST MULTI-VOLUME ORNITHOLOGICAL WORK, the second in his folio series, this copy having belonged to Henry Richard Cox, whose name appears in the list of subscribers in volume 1. As stated in the preface, "the Birds of Europe, in which we are, or ought to be, most interested, have not received that degree of attention which they naturally demand. The present work has been undertaken to supply that deficiency." The drawings of continental species were taken from specimens in museums and zoos in Holland, German, and Switzerland, which Gould had toured several times in the 1830s-at least once with Lear, who was the first and one of the greatest of the series of fine artists that he employed over the ensuing half century. "AMONG THE MOST REMARKABLE BIRD DRAWINGS EVER MADE" (Susan Hyman, Edward Lear's Birds). "There is no doubt that Edward Lear was the first person to understand the art of lithograph, and to use it to its fullest potential. It was a legacy that granted the fabled works of Gould their success, and took them into the forefront of nineteenth-century illustration" (Isabella Tree, The Ruling Passion of John Gould, p. 43). REFERENCES: Anker 169; Ayer/Zimmer, pp. 251-252, Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 101; McGill/Wood, p. 364; Nissen IVB 371 PROVENANCE: Henry Richard Cox (1779-1865) (armorial bookplate and named in list of subscribers); Sacchetti, (bookplate, possibly the House of Sacchetti, an Italian noble family) L65BTH2A.

Five volumes, large folio (550 x 370mm), with 320 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates by Gould and Hart, printed by Walter or the Mintern Brothers; full Contemporary Green Morocco Gilt, elaborate Greek key borders on all covers, spines with gilt designs in compartments, a fine set. A fine copy of Gould's last major work. Gould died on February 3rd. 1881, shortly after the publication of the 12th fascicule. The remaining 13 parts were edited or written by Sharpe and illustrated by Hart. The work includes some of Gould's most spectacular plates, notably amongst those representing parrots, the birds-of-paradise, perroquets, kingfishers, and pittas. The work is often considered as a companion to The Birds of Australia. Sharpe's own Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise (1891-1898) continued the work and made use of some of the same plates.

5 volumes, folio (22 x 14 1/2 in.; 55.9 x 36.8 cm). 448 fine handcolored lithographic plates (68 by Edward Lear, the rest by Elizabeth Gould after her husband's sketches) and heightened with gum arabic, printed by Charles Hullmandel, dedication to Lord Derby, 2-page list of subscriber's and general list of plates for all 5 volumes in vol. 1, list of plates in each volume; light offsetting in gutter of first plate and text leaf in vol. 1 from a previously inserted slip of paper, some faint pigment offsetting, most prevalent in vol. 5, bottom margin of a few plates and text leaves in vol. 2 bumped, occasional, minor marginal spotting to plates. Contemporary burgundy half straight-grained morocco over brown moiré-patterned cloth, smooth spines ruled and lettered gilt, plain endpapers; extremities rubbed, endpapers foxed, board edge of vol. 5 upper cover slightly bumped. FIRST EDITION OF GOULD'S FIRST MULTI-VOLUME ORNITHOLOGICAL WORK, the second in his folio series. As stated in the preface, "the Birds of Europe, in which we are, or ought to be, most interested, have not received that degree of attention which they naturally demand. The present work has been undertaken to supply that deficiency." The drawings of continental species were taken from specimens in museums and zoos in Holland, German, and Switzerland, which Gould had toured several times in the 1830s-at least once with Lear, who was the first and one of the greatest of the series of fine artists that he employed over the ensuing half century. "AMONG THE MOST REMARKABLE BIRD DRAWINGS EVER MADE" (Susan Hyman, Edward Lear's Birds). "There is no doubt that Edward Lear was the first person to understand the art of lithograph, and to use it to its fullest potential. It was a legacy that granted the fabled works of Gould their success, and took them into the forefront of nineteenth-century illustration (Isabella Tree, The Ruling Passion of John Gould, p. 43). REFERENCES: Anker 169; Ayer/Zimmer, pp. 251-252, Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 101; McGill/Wood, p. 364; Nissen IVB 371 (65BTH3A).

5 volumes. Folio (22 4/8 x 14 4/8 inches). 448 hand-colored lithographs by Edward Lear, and by Elizabeth Gould after sketches by John Gould (small repair to plate 68). Contemporary full green morocco gilt, all edges gilt. Provenance: Bookplate of the Arcadian Library on the front paste-down. First edition of Gould's first multi-volume ornithological work, as opposed to monograph. Gould undertook this work partly in an effort to redress the imbalance between the study of local and foreign ornithology. In his preface he stated his mission: "the Birds of Europe, in which we are, or ought to be, most interested, have not received that degree of attention which they naturally demand. The present work has been undertaken to supply that deficiency." Gould portrayed birds native to Europe in a manner that had only been thought appropriate for the colorful species of distant places, using specimens in museums and zoos in Holland, Germany and Switzerland. In this way he managed to draw much popular interest back to native birds, which were suddenly considered equally beautiful to exotic species. Though the majority of the plates in "The Birds of Europe" were drawn and lithographed by Elizabeth Gould, John Gould employed the masterly talents of Edward Lear for the first time, and his influence can be seen in many of the plates: "There is no doubt that Edward Lear was the first person to understand the art of lithography, and to use it to its fullest potential. It was a legacy that granted the fabled works of Gould their success, and took them into the forefront of nineteenth-century illustration" (Tree). A total of sixty-eight images bear Lear's name: "they are certainly among the most remarkable bird drawings ever made, . it is evident that Lear endowed them with some measure of his own whimsy and intelligence, his energetic curiosity, his self-conscious clumsiness and his unselfconscious charm." (Hyman). From the distinguished Arcadian Library (Natural History Collection), the leading repository of rare books recording the relations and influences between Europe and the Arab and Islamic world. Initially employed as a taxidermist [he was known as the 'bird-stuffer'] by the Zoological Society, Gould's fascination with birds began in the "late 1820s [when] a collection of birds from the Himalayan mountains arrived at the Society's museum and Gould conceived the idea of publishing a volume of imperial folio sized hand-coloured lithographs of the eighty species, with figures of a hundred birds (A Century of Birds Hitherto Unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains, 1830-32). Gould's friend and mentor N. A. Vigors supplied the text. Elizabeth Gould made the drawings and transferred them to the large lithographic stones. Having failed to find a publisher, Gould undertook to publish the work himself; it appeared in twenty monthly parts, four plates to a part, and was completed ahead of schedule. "With this volume Gould initiated a format of publishing that he was to continue for the next fifty years, although for future works he was to write his own text. Eventually fifty imperial folio volumes were published on the birds of the world, except Africa, and on the mammals of Australia-he always had a number of works in progress at the same time. Several smaller volumes, the majority not illustrated, were published, and he also presented more than 300 scientific papers. "His hand-coloured lithographic plates, more than 3300 in total, are called 'Gould plates'. Although he did not paint the final illustrations, this description is largely correct: he was the collector (especially in Australia) or purchaser of the specimens, the taxonomist, the publisher, the agent, and the distributor of the parts or volumes. He never claimed he was the artist for these plates, but repeatedly wrote of the 'rough sketches' he made from which, with reference to the specimens, his artists painted the finished drawings. The design and natural arrangement of the birds on the.

5 volumes, folio (21 x 14 1/2 in.; 53.3 x 36.8 cm). 448 fine handcolored lithographic plates (68 by Edward Lear, the rest by Elizabeth Gould after her husband's sketches), heightened with gum arabic, printed by Charles Hullmandel, dedication to Lord Derby, 2-page list of subscriber's and general list of plates for all 5 volumes in vol. 1, list of plates in each volume; approximately a third of the plates with light to moderate pigment offsetting to text most prevalent in vol. 5, occasional faint text offsetting to plates, minor marginal spotting to a few plates and text leaves, light toning to 3 plates, short internal tear in bottom text margin (vol. 5, plate 91 - Ivory Gull). Nineteenth-century full green morocco elaborately panelled gilt with foliate rolls and one large roll with alternating birds in flight and cornucopia, the spine in 6 compartments richly gilt (2 lettered and numbered), gilt dentelles, Bouquet combed marbled endpapers, edges gilt; extremities rubbed, a few scratches and scuffs to boards, vol. 2 binding a bit shaken. RAILROAD MAGNATE JAY GOULD'S COPY, FIRST EDITION OF JOHN GOULD'S FIRST MULTI-VOLUME ORNITHOLOGICAL WORK, the second in his folio series. As stated in the preface, "the Birds of Europe, in which we are, or ought to be, most interested, have not received that degree of attention which they naturally demand. The present work has been undertaken to supply that deficiency." The drawings of continental species were taken from specimens in museums and zoos in Holland, German, and Switzerland, which Gould had toured several times in the 1830s-at least once with Lear, who was the first and one of the greatest of the series of fine artists that he employed over the ensuing half century. "AMONG THE MOST REMARKABLE BIRD DRAWINGS EVER MADE" (Susan Hyman, Edward Lear's Birds). "There is no doubt that Edward Lear was the first person to understand the art of lithograph, and to use it to its fullest potential. It was a legacy that granted the fabled works of Gould their success, and took them into the forefront of nineteenth-century illustration" (Isabella Tree, The Ruling Passion of John Gould, p. 43). REFERENCES: Anker 169; Ayer/Zimmer, pp. 251-252, Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 101; McGill/Wood, p. 364; Nissen IVB 371 PROVENANCE: Jay Gould, 1836-1892, (his bookplate depicting "Lyndhurst," his Gothic Revival mansion on the Hudson, and his shelf ticket); his daughter, the philanthropist Helen Gould Shepard, 1868-1938 (her bookplate) L65BTH1B.

Hardcover. Condition: Very good. Second. THE PREFERRED SECOND EDITION, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH THE PLATES OF THE FIRST. London: Taylor & Francis for the author, 1854. Folio (21 ¾" x 14 ¾", 551mm x 374mm). [Full collation available.] With 85 lithographed plates (52 of the second edition, 33 of the first), of which 84 are hand-colored. Instruction-slip to the binder bound at the end. Bound in contemporary dark green morocco with a wide gilt border. On the spine, five pairs of raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, author gilt to the third, date gilt to the tail. Double gilt fillet to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelles. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Rubbed, with patches of wear at the corners and along the lower edge. Very little foxing, with some tanning and offsetting at the plates. John Gould (1804-1881) conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world's birds in a regal format. He is best known for his multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa. The Toucans is the beginning of a different mode of that project: the production of highly analytical monographs. The first edition of the Toucans (1834, but 1833-1835) had 18 fewer plates, and was entirely revised in this second edition to account for newly discovered or distinguished species; four of the plates are free copies of those in the first edition, but the rest are newly drawn by Gould, his wife Elizabeth and their longtime collaborator Henry Constantine Richter; and printed by Hullmandel & Walton. Most unusually -- Mr. Arader has seen two further examples in the last six decades -- the present example is augmented with the full suite of plates from the first edition, thus preserving the whole of Gould's artistic work and presenting his preferred analytical text. Anker 170; Ayer p. 259; Nissen, IVB 378; Sauer 19; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 101.

Hardcover. Condition: Very good. First. First edition of Gould's first multi-volume bird book. London: By the author, [1832]-1837. Five volumes. 448 hand-colored lithographed plates (images 447 and 448 are on a single plate) by Edward Lear, John Gould and Elizabeth Gould, printed by C. Hullmandel. Bound by Hering (signed at the upper edge of the front paste-down) in contemporary green morocco with extra gilt borders on the boards. On the spine, five raised bands with a triple gilt fillet. Panels gilt. Title gilt to the second panel, number gilt to the third panel. Triple gilt fillets to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. With all edges of the text-block gilt. Spines uniformly sunned. Extremities a little scuffed. End-papers foxed, but internally very good, with occasional offsetting. With the armorial bookplate of Algernon Peckover on the front paste-down of vol. I. Ownership signature (1842) of William Peckover on the verso of the first free end-paper of vol. I. Here is the beginning of the great project by Gould: to present the birds of the world in large-format richly-illustrated multi-volume works. The masterful plates illustrate the text by N.A. Vigors, and in this respect The Birds of Europe stands apart: Gould would provide the text for subsequent endeavors. The challenge of illustrating European birds was to overcome the familiarity of his audience. The result is clear from the subsequent dozens of volumes that would emerge over the following five decades. One of the keys to this success is the involvement of Edward Lear. 68 of the plates were drawn by the poet-artist, and have an almost cartoonish clarity; there is a surety of line that distinguishes his work from other ornithological illustrators' preciousness. Lear's working method differed somewhat from the Goulds' (John Gould was called "bird-stuffer" as his initial role was as taxidermist for the Zoological Society), since he was given to drawing from life. This practice began in his employment by the Earl of Derby drawing the menagerie at Knowsley Hall. To his achievement in gathering the material and superintending the great project we must also add his business acumen: he undertook the subscription, printing and publication of the work - in parts, and, remarkably, ahead of schedule. Unlike so many of the great entrepreneurs of plate-books, Gould managed not only to avoid bankruptcy but also to turn a great profit. William (1790â1877) and Algernon (1803â1893) Peckover were sons of the famous Quaker banker Jonathan Peckover of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire. The brothers were founder members of the Wisbech Museum, of which Algernon would go on to be president. Jonathan founded the Wisbech Literary Society in 1871. Ayer/Zimmer 251; Hyman, Lear's Birds p. 45; Jackson, Bird Illustrators pp. 32-58; Nissen, IVB 371. Sauer 2; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 101.

Hardcover. Condition: Very good. First. "THE TROCHILIDAE OF GOULD IS HIS MASTERPIECE, AND MUST EVER REMAIN A FEAST OF BEAUTY AND A SOURCE OF WONDER" -- THE MARCEL JEANSON SET. Six volumes (five volumes plus supplement). London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, [1849]1861. AND London: Henry Sotheran & Co., [1880]1887. Folio (21 ½" x 14 7/16", 545mm x 366mm). [Full collation available.] With 418 hand-colored lithographed plates (360 in the main work), heightened in gum arabic, with mineral pigments, oil pigments and varnish. Collated complete against the lists of plates and against Anker. Bound in contemporary green morocco with a wide gilt and blind border. On the spine, five pairs of raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, author and number gilt to the third. Triple gilt fillet to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelles. Yellow-glazed end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Each volume presented in a dark blue cloth clam-shell box. Scuffed at the extremities. Sometime vertical creases to a few title-pages. Moderate foxing to the end-matter, with intermittent foxing, particularly to the plate descriptions. Bookplate of Marcel Jeanson completed in ink manuscript "7.045/T1[-T6]" to the front paste-down of each volume. John Gould (1804-1881) conceived, in the generation after Audubon, a massive project: to illustrate the world's birds in a regal format. His multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa are celebrated for their plates, after Gould and Gould's wife Elizabeth, and by a quartet of the most celebrated natural history artists of the XIXc: William Matthew Hart, Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter and Joseph Wolf. The Trochilidae (birds of Central and South America), which was begun in the middle of his career and the Supplement completed only after his death, is celebrated most enthusiastically by Sitwell in his Fine Bird Books: "The humming-birds are so beautiful in themselves that the ecstasy of delight into which they throw one should not let it appear that the Trochilidae, in aesthetics, is other than among the most beautiful of Victorian illustrated books. an incomparable catalogue and compendium of beauties. All in all, the Trochilidae of Gould is his masterpiece, and must ever remain a feast of beauty and a source of wonder" (pp. 39-40). As with his Birds of Australia, Gould, working from London, was dissatisfied that he had been complete, such that over 30 years after beginning the project he sought to supplement it. He produced only the first part (1880) before his death. The project was shepherded through the press (the expense taken up by Sotheran, the printing still done by Taylor and Francis) by Osbert Salvin and completed by Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909), a great ornithologist in his own right, who might be considered Gould's heir. Marcel Jeanson (1885-1942) was a French industrialist with a passion for hunting. He built on the collection of Henri Gallice d'Épernay, the heir to the house of Perrier-Jouët, whose passion for natural history art is enshrined in the Art-Nouveau flowers (drawn by his brother Octave) that encircle the Champagne's bottle. Jeanson collected in particular the very finest ornithological watercolors; inclusion in his library is a distinction difficult to match. The present set was lot 38 in his Sotheby's Monaco sale 16 June 1988 ($101,319). Anker 177 & 182; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 102 ("The absence of the Supplement does not mean that the original 5 volumes need by [sic] considered incomplete, in a collector's sense.").

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 5 volumes. Folio (21 4/8 x 14 4/8 inches). 367 hand-colored lithographs after John Gould, Josef Wolf, and H.C. Richter (4 plates at end of volume IV with some spotting). Contemporary green morocco gilt, all edges gilt, by Bickers and Son. Provenance: 19th-century engraved bookplate of the Barons Egerton of Tatton on the front paste-down of each volume; 20th-century bookplate of C.J. Coldeway on the front paste-down of each volume. "The most popular of all his works is always likely to be Birds of Great Britain" ("Fine Bird Books") First edition. Often referred to as the most sumptuous and costly of all British bird books, the plates depict scenes with more sophisticated subjects than Gould's previous works, including nests, chicks and eggs: "I also felt that 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 author's, and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest for science." (Gould "Preface" to "Introduction", 1873). Initially employed as a taxidermist [he was known as the 'bird-stuffer'] by the Zoological Society, Gould's fascination with birds began in the "late 1820s [when] a collection of birds from the Himalayan mountains arrived at the Society's museum and Gould conceived the idea of publishing a volume of imperial folio sized hand-coloured lithographs of the eighty species, with figures of a hundred birds (A Century of Birds Hitherto Unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains, 1830-32). Gould's friend and mentor N. A. Vigors supplied the text. Elizabeth Gould made the drawings and transferred them to the large lithographic stones. Having failed to find a publisher, Gould undertook to publish the work himself; it appeared in twenty monthly parts, four plates to a part, and was completed ahead of schedule. "With this volume Gould initiated a format of publishing that he was to continue for the next fifty years, although for future works he was to write his own text. Eventually fifty imperial folio volumes were published on the birds of the world, except Africa, and on the mammals of Australia-he always had a number of works in progress at the same time. Several smaller volumes, the majority not illustrated, were published, and he also presented more than 300 scientific papers. "His hand-coloured lithographic plates, more than 3300 in total, are called 'Gould plates'. Although he did not paint the final illustrations, this description is largely correct: he was the collector (especially in Australia) or purchaser of the specimens, the taxonomist, the publisher, the agent, and the distributor of the parts or volumes. He never claimed he was the artist for these plates, but repeatedly wrote of the 'rough sketches' he made from which, with reference to the specimens, his artists painted the finished drawings. The design and natural arrangement of the birds on the plates was due to the genius of John Gould, and a Gould plate has a distinctive beauty and quality. His wife was his first artist. She was followed by Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, William Matthew Hart, and Joseph Wolf" (Gordon C. Sauer for DNB). Anker p. 60; "Fine Bird Books"; Nissen 372; Sauer 23; Tree "The Ruling Passion of John Gould", p. 207; Wood p. 365; Zimmer p. 261. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. First. First edition. London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, 1862-1873. Five volumes. Folio (21 ¾" x 14 ¾", 553mm x 375mm). With 367 hand-colored lithographed plates, most heightened with gum arabic, after John Gould, Joseph Wolf, H.C. Richter and William Hart. Printed by Walter or Walter & Cohn. Two wood-engraved text illustrations, dedication leaf, 5-page list of subscribers. Bound in contemporary half green morocco over green cloth, with triple gilt fillets at the edges of the morocco. On the spine, 6 raised bands. Triple gilt fillets top-and-bottom in the panels. Title gilt to the second panel, number gilt to the fourth panel. Marbled endpapers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Some rubbing at the extremities. With light occasional spotting, chiefly marginal, to the text and a flew plates. Title-page of vol. IV starting. End-papers foxed. Altogether near fine. With the bookplate of the California Academy of Sciences to the front paste-down of each volume. Ownership signature of A. Hamel 1896 (?) to the verso of the first free end-paper of each volume. Gould's most popular of his large-format multi-volume ornithological works, with the greatest number of subscribers. Even more than in his inaugural set, the Birds of Europe (completed 1837), Gould's challenge was to circumvent the conception of British birds as ordinary or unremarkable. He had to bring the birds that circled overhead in front of his readers' eyes with freshness and striking beauty. The complexity of the scenes grew, with tableaux of nests, chicks and eggs joining the usual modes of depiction. Gould wrote in the Preface that he "felt that 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; and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest." The text is longer than in any of his other works, and many of the illustrations were prepared from freshly-killed specimens. Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates, and was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the illustrations. Ayer/Zimmer p. 261, Fine Bird Books p. 102, Mullens & Swann p. 242; Nissen IVB 372, Sauer 23, Wood p. 365.

Folio. (21 5/8 x 14 3/4 inches). 51 hand-coloured lithographed plates by Gould and Henry Constantine Richter, one uncolored lithographed anatomical plate by G. Scharf, all printed by Hullmandel & Walton. Publisher's full dark green morocco, covers elaborately tooled in blind and gilt. A very fine copy of the second, revised and expanded, edition of Gould's first great ornithological monograph in the publisher's deluxe binding. The chief glories of this work are the wonderful plates worked up by Richter from Gould's masterful sketches. The resulting images ably capture the vibrant colours and ready intelligence that many of these birds exhibit. The first edition of this work, published in 1834-1835, marked the first attempt to picture and describe the whole Toucan family. The range of these extraordinary birds is limited to Mexico, Central and South America and some of the West Indies. The first time a Toucan was described in print was by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes in 1526. The first use of the name 'Toucan' and the first illustration of the whole bird was in Andre Thevet's Singularitez de la France (Paris: 1555, pp.88-90). The family name Ramphastos as suggested by Linnaeus was taken from Aldrovandus. Gould considered the present edition as essentially a new work, both in terms of the number of new species described (51 plates compared to 33 in the first edition) and because of discoveries made in the Andes and Cordilleras, he proposed dividing the group into six genera rather than the previous two. The distinguished zoologist, Richard Owen, provided a specially written essay on the anatomy of the toucan, included here and accompanied by an uncoloured plate of details of the anatomical structure of the Toucan. BM(NH) II,p.701; Anker 170; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.101; Nissen IVB 378; Sauer 19; Wood, p. 365; Zimmer p.259.

First edition, a subscriber's copy, of "the most sumptuous and costly of the British bird books" (Mullens & Swann), the work of which Gould was most proud; Richard Bowdler Sharp, a close friend and curator of birds at the British Museum, declared that "such beautiful illustrations as those of the Birds of Great Britain scarcely existed before and are not likely to be surpassed". The work was issued in 25 parts and was 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 lithographic stone used for the Snowy Owl plate (vol. I) broke at an early stage in the printing. Later printings of this plate show evidence of this, and the early issue, present here is more desirable. The finished work was seen, "perhaps partly because its subject was British, as the culmination of Gould's. genius" (Tree, p. 207). The text is more extensive, and the illustrations depict many more chicks, nests, and eggs, than in his other grand folios. "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" (preface). Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates and accompanied Gould on an ornithological tour of Scandinavia in 1856, persuaded Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the subject. Provenance: (a) Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster (1795-1869), subscriber to two copies of the work, bookplates, presentation inscription in volume I dated 1876, to; (b) Thomas Merthyr Guest (1838-1904), bookplates; husband of; (c) Theodora Guest (1840-1924), youngest child of the Marquess and Marchioness of Westminster, autograph note about an avian specimen she sent to the Natural History Museum in margin of text opposite plate 82, volume IV. Together with an autograph note from Gould, on a separate piece of paper pasted to the front pastedown of volume I, to the Marchioness of Westminster and Theodora Guest, with a possible date of 1877. This is a splendid subscriber's copy, in the earliest and most attractive iteration of the classic green morocco binding by the firm of Tuckett. Their design was echoed by other binders in the years after Gould's death in 1881, when his extant plates continued to be hand-coloured and bound up by Zaehnsdorf for sale by Henry Sotheran's. Fine Bird Books, p. 102; Mullens & Swann, p. 240; Nissen IVB 371; Sauer 23; Wood, p. 365; Zimmer, p. 261. Isabella Tree, The Ruling Passion of John Gould, 1991. 5 vols, folio (542 x 348 mm). With 367 hand-coloured lithograph plates, many heightened with gum arabic, by Henry Constantine Richter and William Matthew Hart after Gould and Joseph Wolf, printed by Walter or Cohn. Contemporary dark green morocco by Tuckett (his stamp at foot of front free endpaper verso), spines with five pairs of raised bands, gilt lettered direct in second and third compartments, others richly gilt tooled with triple fillet panels enclosing oak leaves, acorns, and foliate lozenges, sides with concentric panels of fillets, scrolling foliate rolls and oak leaves and acorns, board edges with gilt triple fillets, richly gilt turn-ins, pale yellow coated endpapers trimmed with a blind foliate roll, gilt edges. Variable light spotting, mainly confined to vol. I and the title pages of all volumes, vol. IV pl. 32 tiny marginal nick, vol. IV pl. 33 tiny marginal crease, the occasional light mark: overall, very good.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Large folio (21 2/8 x 14 inches). 33 hand-colored lithographic plates by Edward Lear and John and Elizabeth Gould, one uncoloured plate by George Scharf, all printed by Charles Hullmandel (some occasional light spotting and offsetting, one plate with marginal stain not affecting the image). Contemporary green morocco gilt (skillfully rebacked to style). Provenance: Armorial bookplate of J.T. Hales Tooke on the verso of the front free endpaper. First edition of Gould's first monograph, originally issued in three parts in 1833, 1834 and 1835. "In geographical distribution these birds are strictly confined to the tropical portions of America. According to the best information, they are a retiring and shy race, are mostly observed in small flocks or companies, and inhabit the dense woods and forests of that luxuriant country" (Introduction). Sacheverall Sitwell in "Fine Bird Books" described Gould's "Ramphastidae" as one of his "most lovely works": Lear's and the Goulds's plates depicting the Toucans and Aracaris (or "smaller, pocket toucans") "with their enormous beaks [and]. unimaginable transformations of their basic colours; their eyes, even, vary from bright blue to red." (page 31). Anker 170; Fine Bird Books (1990) p.101; Nissen IVB 378; Sauer 3; Wood p. 364; Zimmer pp. 252-253. Catalogue description prepared for and on behalf of Arader Galleries by Kate Hunter.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 5 volumes. Folio (21 4/8 x 14 4/8 inches). 367 hand-colored lithographs after John Gould, Josef Wolf, and H.C. Richter. Contemporary green and half morocco gilt, raised bands on spine, marbled endpapers. Light spotting to introductory pages, spine and corners lightly scuffed. "The most popular of all his works is always likely to be Birds of Great Britain" ("Fine Bird Books") First edition. Often referred to as the most sumptuous and costly of all British bird books, the plates depict scenes with more sophisticated subjects than Gould's previous works, including nests, chicks and eggs: "I also felt that 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 author's, and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest for science." (Gould "Preface" to "Introduction", 1873). Initially employed as a taxidermist [he was known as the 'bird-stuffer'] by the Zoological Society, Gould's fascination with birds began in the "late 1820s [when] a collection of birds from the Himalayan mountains arrived at the Society's museum and Gould conceived the idea of publishing a volume of imperial folio sized hand-coloured lithographs of the eighty species, with figures of a hundred birds (A Century of Birds Hitherto Unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains, 1830-32). Gould's friend and mentor N. A. Vigors supplied the text. Elizabeth Gould made the drawings and transferred them to the large lithographic stones. Having failed to find a publisher, Gould undertook to publish the work himself; it appeared in twenty monthly parts, four plates to a part, and was completed ahead of schedule. "With this volume Gould initiated a format of publishing that he was to continue for the next fifty years, although for future works he was to write his own text. Eventually fifty imperial folio volumes were published on the birds of the world, except Africa, and on the mammals of Australia-he always had a number of works in progress at the same time. Several smaller volumes, the majority not illustrated, were published, and he also presented more than 300 scientific papers. "His hand-coloured lithographic plates, more than 3300 in total, are called 'Gould plates'. Although he did not paint the final illustrations, this description is largely correct: he was the collector (especially in Australia) or purchaser of the specimens, the taxonomist, the publisher, the agent, and the distributor of the parts or volumes. He never claimed he was the artist for these plates, but repeatedly wrote of the 'rough sketches' he made from which, with reference to the specimens, his artists painted the finished drawings. The design and natural arrangement of the birds on the plates was due to the genius of John Gould, and a Gould plate has a distinctive beauty and quality. His wife was his first artist. She was followed by Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, William Matthew Hart, and Joseph Wolf" (Gordon C. Sauer for DNB). Anker p. 60; "Fine Bird Books"; Nissen 372; Sauer 23; Tree "The Ruling Passion of John Gould", p. 207; Wood p. 365; Zimmer p. 261. Catalogued by Kate Hunter. (L64F18D).

Hardcover. Condition: Very good. First. FROM THE LIBRARY OF JOHN JAMES AUDUBON -- THE "MISSING LINK" BETWEEN THE GREAT BIRD-BOOK-MEN. First edition. Parts II & III (of 3) in one. London: Charles Hullmandel for the author, 1835 [1836] (part II); Richard and John E. Taylor for the author (part III), 1838. Broadsheet folio (21 3/8" x 14 ½", 543mm x 367mm). [Full collation available.] With 25 lithographed plates (12 in part II, 13 in part III), hand-colored and heightened in gum arabic, by and after Gould, Henry Constantine Richter and William Matthew Hart. Bound in later (late-XIXc?) green morocco with a wide gilt border. On the spine, 6 pairs of raised bands. In the second panel, "AUDUBON'S/ GOULD" gilt. Title and numbers gilt to the third panel ("A/ MONOGRAPH/ OF THE/ TROGONIDA [sic]/ P.TS 2 & 3"). Triple gilt fillet to the edges of the boards. Yellow-coated end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Bound without pt. I (11 plates, 11 leaves text). A little scuffed, with some (repaired) skinning. Joints strengthened. The (publisher's printed) boards soiled, particularly that of part III. General offsetting, with a little mild tanning. Tear (about 1") to the lower edge of the penultimate plate of part II (Trogon collaris), not affecting the text. [Full provenance markings available.] Ink ownership signature of "J.J. Audubon/ March 21st 1836/ London" to the recto of the printed board of part II. John Gould (1804-1881), inspired by Audubon's Birds of America (1827-1838), conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world's birds in a stately (if not elephantine) format. He eventually described the birds -- if not quite exhaustively -- of every continent but Africa. The "Gould plate" -- an imperial folio (just under 2' tall) with a more-or-less sketched background -- came to define bird illustration for the final two-thirds of the XIXc. The major geographical works-- Asia, Australia, Europe etc. -- are multi-volume, but those focusing on a single genus or family tended to be smaller, as here. The Trogonidæ -- from the Greek trôgôn, nibbling, in reference to the mode in which the birds make their nest -- was issued in three parts between 1835 and 1838 and illustrated with 36 plates; 34 species were described, including twelve "new to science" (Anker). John James Audubon (1785-1851) was the "bird man" before the title was bestowed on Gould. The markings against the list of plates must surely be in his hand, and the plates of part I -- although there is some discrepancy (see Sauer sub 4) in the part-issue -- are all without indications that they have been received. Audubon's marginalium (written against the text for Trogon narina (bound second in part II)) is perhaps the clearest sign of Audubon's bitterness at his treatment by the British natural history establishment. Anker 171; Ayer/Zimmer, p. 261; Fine Bird Books, p. 101; McGill/Wood p. 365; Nissen, IVB 381; Sauer, John Gould: The Bird Man 4. PLEASE SEE THE COMPLETE DESCRIPTION AT ARADERBOOKS . COM.

Hardback. Condition: Good+. Gould, John; Richter, Henry Constantine; Wolf, Joseph; Hart, William (illustrator). First Edition. Five volumes complete, 1862-1873 - Volume One - [13], ii-cxl, [2], thirty-seven plates with letterpress; Volume Two - [4], seventy-eight plates with letterpress; Volume Three - [4], seventy-six plates with letterpress; Volume Four - [4], ninety plates with letterpress; and Volume Five, [4], eighty-six plates with letterpress. Contemporary full morocco, raised bands, spines in six panels, author and title lettered directly to second panel, volume number to third, remaining panels gilt, with triple fillet frame surrounding elaborate volute tools, covers with a thick and thin line border surrounding several rolls and other single line frames, inner edges with thick and thin line bordering a repeating flower head roll, with a blind inner roll, a.e.g. Slightly rubbed to extremities, but generally in very good order. Internally some light foxing mainly to margins, but occasionally heavier, affecting approximately fourteen plates and their text leaves, but nothing too obtrusive. Bookplate of Hermann Marx to each front pastedown, partiallly torn away in the third volume. With three hundred and sixty-seven hand coloured lithographic plates as called for, many heightened with gum-arabic, and two wood engraved illustrations. Issued in twenty-five parts, 'The Birds of Great Britain' was Gould's paean to the birds of his native land, and he was "especially proud of this work" (Sauer, 'John Gould', page 74). Notwithstanding the irony that much of the artwork was prepared from freshly killed specimens, the preface and text shows Gould's acute understanding of the human threat to wildlife well before such views were commonplace: Size: Elephant Folio.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 5 volumes, folio (21 3/8 x 14 1/2 in.; 54.3 x 36.8 cm). 448 fine handcolored lithographic plates (68 by Edward Lear, the rest by Elizabeth Gould after her husband's sketches) and printed by Charles Hullmandel, dedication to Lord Derby, 2-page list of subscriber's and general list of plates for all 5 volumes in vol. 1, list of plates in each volume; vertical creases to list of plates in vols. 2-5 and to first plate (Snow Goose) in vol. 5, very faint, occasional marginal foxing to plates, neat repair to small tear along bottom margin of Rose Coloured Pastor in vol. 3, overall a VERY FRESH, BRIGHT COPY. Contemporary red morocco paneled gilt, spines in 6 compartments richly gilt (2 lettered), marbled endpapers, edges gilt; joints lightly rubbed, small tear to spine head of vol. 2, covers a bit darkened from leather treatment. FIRST EDITION OF GOULD'S FIRST MULTI-VOLUME ORNITHOLOGICAL WORK, the second in his folio series. As stated in the preface, "the Birds of Europe, in which we are, or ought to be, most interested, have not received that degree of attention which they naturally demand. The present work has been undertaken to supply that deficiency." The drawings of continental species were taken from specimens in museums and zoos in Holland, German, and Switzerland, which Gould had toured several times in the 1830s-at least once with Lear, who was the first and one of the greatest of the series of fine artists that he employed over the ensuing half century. "AMONG THE MOST REMARKABLE BIRD DRAWINGS EVER MADE" (Susan Hyman, Edward Lear's Birds). "There is no doubt that Edward Lear was the first person to understand the art of lithograph, and to use it to its fullest potential. It was a legacy that granted the fabled works of Gould their success, and took them into the forefront of nineteenth-century illustration (Isabella Tree, The Ruling Passion of John Gould, p. 43). REFERENCES: Anker 169; Ayer/Zimmer, pp. 251-252, Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 101; McGill/Wood, p. 364; Nissen IVB 371 (L64F16C-D).

Condition: Very Good. [12], cxl, [2], [68]; [4], [152]; [4], [140]; [4], [170]; [4], [172], 367 hand-col plates. . HB. 5 vols, imp. folio (547x352mm), 19th-century. full green morocco, raised bands, richly gilt to compartments, broad decorative gilt borders to covers, gilt tooling to turn-ins and edges of boards, aeg. One volume professionally rebacked preserving original spine, some rubbing, particularly to joints, with neat leather reinforcements to head/foot of several spines. A little foxing to endpapers and title pages, plates clean, but with a dark area (oxidation of pigment?) above the greenshank (Glottis canescens) with offsetting to this area from text on facing page. A very good set. Provenance: Bookplate Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease (1924-2005), 2nd Baron Wardington and of Lucy Anne Pease, his daughter. First edition. Fine hand-coloured lithographic plates from drawings by Gould, Joseph Wolf, H.C. Richter and W. Hart, mostly lithographed by Richter and Hart, some heightened with gum arabic. The work was originally issued in twenty-five parts and was well received. Gould stresses its difference from The Birds of Europe in the treatment of the illustrations, the inclusion of figures of young birds and nests, and the more extensive text.'Gould will always be remembered by the magnificent series of folio works bearing his name (one of which incidentally is the most sumptuous and costly of the British bird books), which are excelled in extent and beauty by the work of no one other ornithologist, past or present' (Mullens & Swann).'Such beautiful illustrations as those of the Birds of Great Britain scarcely existed before and are not likely to be surpassed' (R. Bowdler Sharpe).Fine Bird Books, p.78; Mullens & Swann p. 242; Nissen IVB 372; Sauer 23; Wood, p. 365; Zimmer, p. 261.

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. First. "AN ANIMAL PERFECTLY NEW AND UNDESCRIBED" Two parts (of 3; all issued) in one volume. London: published by the author, [August 1st 1841-]May 1st 1842. First edition. Folio (21 9/16" x 14 3/8", 547mm x 365mm): 31 leaves, pp. [62] (text to each plate, blank; plus the cancelled description of the Petrogale robusta, blank). With 30 hand-colored lithographed plates printed by Hullmandel after Gould and H.C. Richter. The wrapper to part II bound in lieu of a title-page (never issued). Letterpress slip announcing the cancellation bound in before the cancellandum. Bound in early-XXc red morocco gilt by ?Habsher of Hampshire, England (their stamp at the lower front turn-in) with a foliate roll border between fillets gilt. On the spine, five raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel. Date gilt to the tail. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Double gilt fillet to the turn-ins. Red watered-silk doublure end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Some scuffs to the binding. The wrapper laid down, with chips at the fore and soiling generally. Mildly foxed, with the odd split. "[I.]-" added in graphite to the part-wrapper. "Cancelled" in graphite to the cancellandum at the rear. John Gould (1804-1881) conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world's birds in a regal format. He is best known for his multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa. Following the success of his 1837 Birds of Europe, Gould with his wife Elizabeth -- the principal artist of the work, responsible for some 600 of the plates -- went, most unusually for the times, to Australia. The present work, issued in the course of the publication of the Birds of Europe, is one of two non-avian books (the second, Mammals of Australia ([1845]-1863), drawing on 15 of the illustrations in the present work) that Gould published. John Hawkesworth quotes Sir Joseph Banks, the naturalist who sailed with Captain Cook, describing the kangaroo as "an animal perfectly new and undescribed." The marsupial as an infraclass was described only in 1811, though the first members to be encountered by Europeans were opossums from South America. Macropods (including kangaroos, wallabies and quokkas), native to Australia, New Guinea and other nearby islands, in the present work receive their first holistic treatment. Nissen, ZBI 1662; Sauer 11.

First edition; folio (54 x 36 cm.); dedication leaf, list of subscribers, and 33 hand-coloured lithographs by and after Edward Lear, John and Elizabeth Gould, each heightened with gum arabic, one uncoloured lithographed anatomical plate by and after G. Scharf; contemporary half green morocco gilt, spine gilt in compartments, a fine copy. The Ramphastidae (Family of Toucans) is without doubt the finest and most comprehensive work on this family of Birds. Lear uses colour in a fantastical manner to convey the beauty of these birds. 'The toucans, with their enormous beaks, have gone in for unimaginable transformations of their basic colours; their eyes, even, vary from bright blue to red. The beaks can be black, with an upper edge of pale straw yellow, or the beak is crimson red with a black dividing line, but sometimes the bill is green, olive green; or the lower bill a bright blue with green shadings.' (Sitwell). The Toucan family is limited to Mexico, Central and South America and some West Indian islands; the uncoloured plate accompanies Richard Owen's final chapter on the anatomy of the Toucan, written specially for the work. Anker 170; Ayer/Zimmer 252; Balis 102; Fine Bird Books 77; McGill/Wood 364; Nissen IVB 378; Sauer 3.

Folio. 80 fine hand-colored lithographic plates, by and after Elizabeth Gould, after sketches by John Gould. Contemporary green morocco gilt, all edges gilt. Provenance: from the library of the Wadsworth Athenaeum, the gift of J. Pierpont Morgan in memory of his father, with an engraved bookplate commemorating the bequest on the front paste-down of each volume. First edition, first issue, with the backgrounds of the plates uncolored. Gould's first major work produced after his acquisition of a collection of bird-skins from the Himalaya Mountains: "the work scored such a great success that Gould continued for the rest of his life to publish large uniform monographs and faunas all on the same lines" (Anker, 168). Gould acknowledges the help of Vigors in confirming the nomenclature of the birds and their descriptions. Initially employed as a taxidermist [he was known as the 'bird-stuffer'] by the Zoological Society, Gould's fascination with birds from the east began in the "late 1820s [when] a collection of birds from the Himalayan mountains arrived at the Society's museum and Gould conceived the idea of publishing a volume of imperial folio sized hand-coloured lithographs of the eighty species, with figures of a hundred birds: "A Century of Birds Hitherto Unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains" , (1830-32), as here. Gould's friend and mentor N. A. Vigors supplied the text. Elizabeth Gould made the drawings and transferred them to the large lithographic stones. Having failed to find a publisher, Gould undertook to publish the work himself; it appeared in twenty monthly parts, four plates to a part, and was completed ahead of schedule. "With this volume Gould initiated a format of publishing that he was to continue for the next fifty years, although for future works he was to write his own text. Eventually fifty imperial folio volumes were published on the birds of the world, except Africa, and on the mammals of Australia-he always had a number of works in progress at the same time. Several smaller volumes, the majority not illustrated, were published, and he also presented more than 300 scientific papers. "His hand-coloured lithographic plates, more than 3300 in total, are called 'Gould plates'. Although he did not paint the final illustrations, this description is largely correct: he was the collector (especially in Australia) or purchaser of the specimens, the taxonomist, the publisher, the agent, and the distributor of the parts or volumes. He never claimed he was the artist for these plates, but repeatedly wrote of the 'rough sketches' he made from which, with reference to the specimens, his artists painted the finished drawings. The design and natural arrangement of the birds on the plates was due to the genius of John Gould, and a Gould plate has a distinctive beauty and quality. His wife was his first artist. She was followed by Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, William Matthew Hart, and Joseph Wolf" (Gordon C. Sauer for DNB). AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE SET. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, one of the most highly discriminating collectors in American history, from Henry Sotheran & Co. on June 15, 1899 (who bought the entire stock of Gould's works and copyrights, and who with the help of Sharpe completed Gould's unfinished works), and subsequently donated it to the Wadsworth Athenaeum in the name of his father. "Fine Bird Books (1990) p. 101; Nissen 374; Sauer 1; Wood p. 364. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.