Gould's Synopsis of the Birds of Australia

GOULD, John (1804-1881).
A Synopsis of the Birds of Australia.
London: By the Author, 1837-38.
Comparable: Mossgreen, 2017 - 42,160 AUD;
Christie’s, 2013 - 12,500 Euro.
Small folio (29 x 19.5 cm.): 75 leaves, 8 pages, and 73 lithographed plates hand-colored by Elizabeth Gould (some heightened in gum Arabic); usually two images of head studies of birds per leaf, with facing leaves of explanatory text, plus two additional leaves of text, plus 8-page "Description of new species of Australian birds, principally from the author’s collection, with characters of several new genera, read at the scientific meeting of the Zoological Society in December 1837" at end. Bound in contemporary green half-morocco, spine gilt, raised bands. FIRST EDITION OF GOULD’S FIRST WORK ON AUSTRALIAN BIRDS, INCLUDING ORIGINAL DESCRIPTIONS OF SEVERAL NEW GENERA AND THIRTY-SIX NEW SPECIES. The 1830s were a busy decade for ornithologist and bird artist John Gould: he issued three major works, including his plate book on the birds of the Himalayas in 1830-32, his five-volume Birds of Europe in 1837, and his research in the same year for Charles Darwin to identify birds from the Beagle voyage, eventually published in the Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, edited by Darwin, in 1838-41. Even after this whirlwind of activity, Gould craved a new project, and he found it in Australia, which remained terra incognita for ornithological study. Gould used his family connections to jump start his plans. "You are perhaps aware," Gould wrote to ornithologist and entomologist William Swainson in January 1837, "that I have two of Mrs Gould’s brothers in Australia engaged in collecting the natural product of that fine country, nearly the whole of which are consigned to myself and that consequently I possess perhaps greater facilities than most persons for the productions of a work of this description. I think I shall add at least as many more species as are at present known" (quoted in Tree, p. 82). On the strength of the parcels sent back to him by his brothers-in-law and his own self-described "exceedingly rich collection, perhaps the finest extant," Gould issued his Synopsis of the Birds of Australia in January 1837. Gould hoped it would attract public and commercial attention and prepare the way for a major, lavishly produced work on the subject. The Synopsis was well received, and Gould announced a projected two-year voyage to Australia, intending to study the birds of that continent in their native habitat. Gould, his wife Elizabeth, and zoological collector John Gilbert (1810-1845) finally sailed for Australia in May 1838. After spending a few months in Tasmania with governor Sir John Franklin and his wife Jane, Gould set off for Sydney in February 1839 and spent the next year traveling the country and collecting bird specimens (he returned to Tasmania for a month in April 1839 to accompany his wife, who had remained in Tasmania and was now giving birth). The Goulds returned to England in May 1840. The result of the trip was The Birds of Australia (1840-1848), containing a total of 681 plates in eight volumes, and 328 of the species described were new to science and named by Gould. REFERENCES: Ferguson 2271; Nissen IVB 382; Sauer 5; E. Thayer & V. Keyes Catalogue of ... books on Ornithology in the Library of John E. Thayer [Boston: 1913] p. 79; Isabella Tree, The Bird Man: The Extraordinary Story of John Gould (2004), pp. 82, 171; Wood p. 364; Zimmer p. 254.