Gould - The Birds of Great Britain

GOULD, John (1804-1881).
The Birds of Great Britain.
London: Taylor and Francis for the Author [1862]-1873.

"THE MOST POPULAR OF ALL HIS WORKS IS ALWAYS LIKELY TO BE BIRDS OF GREAT BRITAIN" (Fine Bird Books)

5 volumes, folio (21 3/4 x 14 3/4 in.; 55.3 x 37.5 cm). 367 EXCEPTIONALLY FINE HANDCOLORED lithographic plates, most heightened with gum arabic, after John Gould, Joseph Wolf, H.C. Richter, and William Hart, printed by Walter or Walter & Cohn, 2 wood-engraved text illustrations, dedication leaf, 5-page list of subscribers; light, occasional spotting, chiefly marginal, to text and a few plates, title-page to vol. 4 partially detached. Contemporary half green morocco over green cloth, the spines in 7 compartments ruled and lettered gilt with raised bands, marbled endpapers, edges gilt; flyleaves foxed.

FIRST EDITION. "THE MOST POPULAR OF ALL HIS WORKS IS ALWAYS LIKELY TO BE BIRDS OF GREAT BRITAIN" (Fine Bird Books), for which Gould found more subscribers than any of his other monographs. 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 by including nests, chicks, and eggs. In his Preface Gould wrote 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 for science." 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, had accompanied Gould on an ornithological tour of Scandinavia in 1856, and was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the illustrations. REFERENCES: Ayer/Zimmer p. 261; Fine Bird Books, p. 102; Mullens and Swann, pp. 240-242; Nissen IVB 372; Sauer 23; Wood p. 365.

PROVENANCE: California Academy of Sciences (bookplate).

Comparables: Arader Galleries, 2018 - $183,000; Christie's, 2003 - $83,650.