Lot 22

Gould, John.

Estimate

30,000 - 35,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

The Birds of Great Britain. London: Printed by Taylor & Francis, published by the author, [1862]-1873

first edition, 5 volumes, folio (540 x 360mm.), 367 hand-coloured lithographed plates from drawings by Gould, Joseph Wolf, H.C. Richter and W. Hart, mostly lithographed by Richter and Hart, list of subscribers, lists of plates, nineteenth-century green morocco gilt, gilt edges, Glottis Canescens with area of soiling and offsetting, binding slighlty rubbed at edges

Provenance

Lucy Anne Pease, bookplate; Wardington, bookplate

Literature

Fine Bird Books, p.78; Nissen IVB 372; Sauer 23; Wood, p.365; Zimmer, p.261

Catalogue Note

"such beautiful illustrations as those of the birds of great britain scarcely existed before and are not likely to be surpassed" (R. Bowdler Sharpe).

The work was issued in twenty-five parts and from the outset was well received, as was reflected in the unusually large number of subscribers. 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.

In his preface, Gould commented on the colouring of the plates: "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". Elsewhere he remarked upon employing "almost all the colourists in London".