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Lot 520

GOULD (JOHN)
The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol.

22 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £31,250 inc. premium

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GOULD (JOHN)

The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., 367 hand-coloured lithographed plates after Gould, Joseph Wolf, H.C. Richter and W. Hart, mostly by Richter and Hart, blindstamps on titles, contemporary green half morocco gilt, g.e., scuffed [Nissen IVB 372; Fine Bird Books, p.78; Sauer 23; Wood, p.365; Zimmer, p.261], folio (555 x 365mm.), Taylor and Francis, by the Author, [1862-]1873

Footnotes

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

"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" (Preface).

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