Gould's Monograph of Trogonidae

GOULD, John (1804-1881).
Monograph of the Trogonidae.
London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, 1858-75.
Comparable: Arader Galleries, 2018 - $43,750;
Christies, 2017 - $30,000.
Folio (21 2/8 x 14 4/8 inches). 47 hand-colored lithographs, most heightened with gum arabic, after John Gould, H.C. Richter, and W. Hart. Contemporary dark green morocco gilt, all edges gilt (expertly rebacked to style, inner hinges strengthened, first and last blanks renewed). Provenance: with the Markree Castle library label of Bryan Ricco Cooper (1884-1930), politician in Ireland, dated 1913 on the front paste-down. Second edition, revised and expanded, originally published in three parts ?1836-1838. This new edition contains 11 new plates not included in the first edition. Gould's second monograph in which he introduces 12 species new to science. Trogons (and Quetzels) mostly inhabit tropical rainforests and get their name from the Greek ('Trogon') word for nibbling, referring to the way in which they gnaw holes in trees to make their nests. 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). From the distinguished library of Bryan Cooper of Markree Castle, Irish politician, veteran of the Gallipoli campaign, and member of the literary elite of Ireland that included W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. Anker 171; "Fine Bird Books" (1990) p.101; Nissen 381; Sauer 4; Zimmer p. 253.