John Gould | The Birds of Great Britain, London, 1862-1873, 5 volumes, contemporary green morocco gilt

Books from a Private Collection

John Gould 

The Birds of Great Britain. London: by the author, 1862-1873

FIRST EDITION, 5 volumes, folio (540 x 362mm.), dedication leaf, list of subscribers, lists of plates, 367 hand-coloured lithographed plates from drawings by Gould, Joseph Wolf, H.C. Richter and W. Hart, mostly lithographed by Richter and Hart, contemporary green morocco gilt, a fine copy

GOULD'S MOST SUBSCRIBED WORK.

"Such beautiful illustrations as those of the Birds of Great Britain scarcely existed before and are not likely to be surpassed" (R. Bowdler Sharpe).

This work held a special place in Gould's corpus; 468 subscribers are listed, and there were discussions of a second edition following its success. Gould playfully includes younger birds in their nests, and in the preface states, "Many of the public are quite unaware how the colouring of these large plates is accomplished; and not a few believe that they are produced by some mechanical process or by chromo-lithography. This, however, is not the case; every sky with its varied tints and every feather of each bird were coloured by hand; and when it is considered that nearly two hundred and eighty thousand illustrations in the present work have been so treated, it will most likely cause some astonishment to those who give the subject a thought".

LITERATURE:

Fine Bird Books, p. 102; Nissen IVB 371; Sauer 23; Zimmer, p. 261