![GOULD, John (1804-1881). The Birds of Europe. London: Richard and John E. Taylor for the Author, [1832]-1837.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1999/CKS/1999_CKS_06110_0032_000(114336).jpg?w=1)
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GOULD, John (1804-1881). The Birds of Europe. London: Richard and John E. Taylor for the Author, [1832]-1837.
5 volumes, large 2 (547 x 373mm). 2pp. subscribers' list. 448 FINE HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES, 68 BY EDWARD LEAR, the rest by Elizabeth Gould after her husband's sketches, printed by Charles Hullmandel. (Very occasional marginal spotting.) Contemporary olive morocco gilt, by T. Armstrong (label), covers with broad ruled and tooled floral borders, central gilt arms of the Finch family, spine in seven compartments with double raised bands, lettered in two, the others with floral motif borders, (neatly rebacked preserving original spines). Provenance: The Hon J. Lieut. Colonel Finch (binding).
A FINE SUBSCRIBERS' COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of Gould's first multi-volume ornithological work, the second of the folio series. Lear's influence is evident in many of the plates. His understanding of the possibilities that lithography offered and his mastery of the techniques involved contributed largely to the founding of the reputation upon which Gould was to build so successfully. Lear was the first and greatest of the fine series of artists that Gould was to employ over the ensuing half century. Anker 169; Fine Bird Books p.77; Nissen IVB 371; Sauer 2; Wood p.364; Zimmer pp.251-252. (5)
5 volumes, large 2 (547 x 373mm). 2pp. subscribers' list. 448 FINE HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES, 68 BY EDWARD LEAR, the rest by Elizabeth Gould after her husband's sketches, printed by Charles Hullmandel. (Very occasional marginal spotting.) Contemporary olive morocco gilt, by T. Armstrong (label), covers with broad ruled and tooled floral borders, central gilt arms of the Finch family, spine in seven compartments with double raised bands, lettered in two, the others with floral motif borders, (neatly rebacked preserving original spines). Provenance: The Hon J. Lieut. Colonel Finch (binding).
A FINE SUBSCRIBERS' COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of Gould's first multi-volume ornithological work, the second of the folio series. Lear's influence is evident in many of the plates. His understanding of the possibilities that lithography offered and his mastery of the techniques involved contributed largely to the founding of the reputation upon which Gould was to build so successfully. Lear was the first and greatest of the fine series of artists that Gould was to employ over the ensuing half century. Anker 169; Fine Bird Books p.77; Nissen IVB 371; Sauer 2; Wood p.364; Zimmer pp.251-252. (5)