Details
GOULD, John (1804-1881). A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-Birds. London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, 1849-1861.
5 volumes in 25 parts, large 2° (560 x 388mm). 3 pages of subscribers' list, 354 (of 360) fine hand-coloured lithographic plates, many heightened with gold, overpainted with transparent varnish and oil colours, by Gould and Henry Constantine Richter, printed by Hullmandel & Walton, Walter and Mintern Brothers (10 plates extracted and separately framed and glazed, some spotting, a few leaves marginally soiled and torn). Original cloth-backed boards (slightly worn), uncut.
FIRST EDITION OF GOULD'S "MASTERPIECE... AN INCOMPARABLE CATALOGUE AND COMPENDIUM OF BEAUTIES" (Fine Bird Books p.29). Most of the subjects came from Gould's own collection of humming-bird specimens, a number of which he exhibited at the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens during the Great Exhibition of 1851. The subjects gave Gould the chance to display the new technique of imitating the birds' iridescent plumage by the use of brilliant metallic colouring. A supplement by R.B. Sharpe was published in 1880-87. The missing plates are of Oreotrichus Estellae, Topoza Pella, Calothorax Mulsanti, Grypus Naevius, Helianthia Bonapartei and Chlorostilbon Poortmani. Nissen IVB 380; Anker 177; Fine Bird Books p.78; Sauer 16 & 29; Wood p.365; Zimmer pp.258 & 263-264. (35)
5 volumes in 25 parts, large 2° (560 x 388mm). 3 pages of subscribers' list, 354 (of 360) fine hand-coloured lithographic plates, many heightened with gold, overpainted with transparent varnish and oil colours, by Gould and Henry Constantine Richter, printed by Hullmandel & Walton, Walter and Mintern Brothers (10 plates extracted and separately framed and glazed, some spotting, a few leaves marginally soiled and torn). Original cloth-backed boards (slightly worn), uncut.
FIRST EDITION OF GOULD'S "MASTERPIECE... AN INCOMPARABLE CATALOGUE AND COMPENDIUM OF BEAUTIES" (Fine Bird Books p.29). Most of the subjects came from Gould's own collection of humming-bird specimens, a number of which he exhibited at the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens during the Great Exhibition of 1851. The subjects gave Gould the chance to display the new technique of imitating the birds' iridescent plumage by the use of brilliant metallic colouring. A supplement by R.B. Sharpe was published in 1880-87. The missing plates are of Oreotrichus Estellae, Topoza Pella, Calothorax Mulsanti, Grypus Naevius, Helianthia Bonapartei and Chlorostilbon Poortmani. Nissen IVB 380; Anker 177; Fine Bird Books p.78; Sauer 16 & 29; Wood p.365; Zimmer pp.258 & 263-264. (35)