GOULD, JOHN | A Monograph of the Trogonidae, or Family of Trogons. London: Taylor and Francis for the author, [1858-] 1875

 GOULD, JOHN 

A Monograph of the Trogonidae, or Family of Trogons. London: Taylor and Francis for the author, [1858-] 1875

Folio (21 3/4 x 14 1/2 in.; 534 x 375 mm). Titlepage and dedication leaf, 47 hand-colored lithographed plates, most heightened with gum arabic, after Gould, William Hart and Henry Constantine Richter, printed by Hullmandel & Walton, Walter, or Walter & Cohn; faint marginal spotting to a few plates. Brown morocco, gilt central coat-of-arms of Henry Martin Gibbs, surrounded by gilt bird tools and floral border, elaborately gilt turn-ins stamp-signed by Zaehnsdorf, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt; two small nicks to morocco along lower edge.

Specimens of these exotic, brilliantly colored birds were difficult to come by and little was known of them when Gould published the first edition in 1838. However, their appeal was enormous, not to mention popular, and so a second edition, listing new species and with additional information was published. In his preface Gould notes that "although I entitle this work a second edition..., it is in reality a new publication, all the plates having been redrawn, and many new species figured for the first time". Some of the new plates include greater background detail, comprising florid tropical plants or smaller birds.

REFERENCE:

Anker 171; Fine Bird Books (1990), 101; Nissen, IVB 381; Sauer 21; Wood 365; Zimmer 261

PROVENANCE:

Henry Martin Gibbs (armorial bookplate to front pastedown; coat-of-arms to upper cover)