![GOULD, John (1804-1881). The Birds of Great Britain. London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, [1862]-1873.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1999/CKS/1999_CKS_06110_0040_000(114336).jpg?w=1)
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GOULD, John (1804-1881). The Birds of Great Britain. London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, [1862]-1873.
5 volumes, large 2 (550 x 375mm). 5pp. subscribers' list. 367 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates, most heightened with gum-arabic, by Gould, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Hart, most lithographed by Richter and Hart, printed by Walter or Walter & Cohn, 2 wood-engraved illustrations. (Several titles and a few preliminary leaves slightly spotted). Green morocco gilt, covers with broad ruled and tooled border, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in two, the others with decorative symmetrical pattern panels composed from various small tools, gilt edges, by Zaehnsdorf. Provenance: C.L. Strong (book plate).
A very fine copy. "The most popular of all his works is always likely to be Birds of Great Britain..." (Fine Bird Books p.29). The text is, of course, longer than in any of Gould's other books, and the illustrations, many of them prepared from freshly killed specimens, include many more depictions of chicks, nests and eggs. Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates, had accompanied Gould on an ornithological tour of Scandinavia in 1856, and was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the birds. Zimmer p.261; Fine Bird Books p.78; Wood p.365; Nissen IVB 372; Sauer 23. (5)
5 volumes, large 2 (550 x 375mm). 5pp. subscribers' list. 367 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates, most heightened with gum-arabic, by Gould, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Hart, most lithographed by Richter and Hart, printed by Walter or Walter & Cohn, 2 wood-engraved illustrations. (Several titles and a few preliminary leaves slightly spotted). Green morocco gilt, covers with broad ruled and tooled border, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in two, the others with decorative symmetrical pattern panels composed from various small tools, gilt edges, by Zaehnsdorf. Provenance: C.L. Strong (book plate).
A very fine copy. "The most popular of all his works is always likely to be Birds of Great Britain..." (Fine Bird Books p.29). The text is, of course, longer than in any of Gould's other books, and the illustrations, many of them prepared from freshly killed specimens, include many more depictions of chicks, nests and eggs. Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates, had accompanied Gould on an ornithological tour of Scandinavia in 1856, and was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the birds. Zimmer p.261; Fine Bird Books p.78; Wood p.365; Nissen IVB 372; Sauer 23. (5)