Gould, John | An ornithological Michelangelo

Property from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, sold to benefit the care of the Museum's 22 million specimens and objects

Gould, John

The Birds of Europe. London: Richard and John E. Taylor, [1832-] 1837

5 volumes, folio (531 x 354 mm). Dedication leaf, list of subscribers, list of plates, 448 hand-colored 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, some heightened with white or gum Arabic; 3 plates in the set with pronounced spotting, another 6 with some faint spotting, some plates faintly offset onto facing text. Publisher's deep green morocco gilt; a little wear to edges and raised bands, some rubbing. 

Gould's second major work, The Birds of Europe, was published in twenty-two parts over five years between 1832 and 1837.

This work 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 Michelangelo he propelled her limited sense of perspective into the third dimension" (Isabella Tree, The Ruling Passion of John Gould, p. 43).

REFERENCE:

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

PROVENANCE:

Library of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (bookplate recording 22 November 1910 purchase)