Gould, John.

first edition, an uncut copy, folio (550 x 385mm.), 448 hand-coloured lithographed plates, the majority drawn and lithographed by Elizabeth Gould from sketches and designs by the author, the remainder drawn and lithographed by Edward Lear, list of subscribers, list of plates, contemporary red half morocco, spines in compartments with raised bands gilt, edges uncut, occasional spotting, creasing and offsetting, worming to one or two leaves, one or two repaired tears, that to the Hobby plate 13cm long, not touching image, binding rubbed and bumped at edges

Helen Elizabeth Pease, bookplate; Wardington, bookplate

Anker 169; Fine Bird Books, p.77; Nissen IVB 371; Sauer 2; Wood, p.364; Zimmer, p.251

Gould's Bird's of Europe is notable for the contribution of Edward Lear, who produced 67 of the plates. As Isabella Tree notes “in volume Lear's contribution may not have been prolific, but its impact was revelatory. Lear's participation transformed the work of Mrs Gould, which in the Himalayan Birds was little more than a continuation of eighteenth-century productions, into dynamic and expressive works of art. Like an ornithological Michaelangelo he propelled her limited sense of perspective into the third dimension” (Isabella Tree, The Ruling Passion of John Gould (London, 1991), p.43).