Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

GOULD (JOHN) A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-Birds, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, by the Author, [1849]-1861 image 1
GOULD (JOHN) A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-Birds, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, by the Author, [1849]-1861 image 2
GOULD (JOHN) A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-Birds, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, by the Author, [1849]-1861 image 3
GOULD (JOHN) A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-Birds, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, by the Author, [1849]-1861 image 4
Lot 90

GOULD (JOHN)
A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-Birds, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, by the Author, [1849]-1861

27 November 2018, 13:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £47,500 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

GOULD (JOHN)

A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-Birds, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, 360 hand-coloured lithographed plates by and after Gould, H.C. Richter, and W. Hart, some heightened in gum arabic, light pencil numeral in upper margin of each, small ink spots in margins of plate 48, a few single spots in approximately 5 others, list of subscribers, contemporary green half morocco gilt, g.e., scuffmarks, 2 upper covers bubbled [Anker 177; Fine Bird Books, p.78; Nissen IVB 830; Wood, p.365; Zimmer, p.258], folio (545 x 370mm.), by the Author, [1849]-1861

Footnotes

"The Trochilidae of Gould is his masterpiece, and must ever remain a feast of beauty and a source of wonder... an incomparable catalogue and compendium of beauties" (Fine Bird Books).

To reproduce the irridescent colours of the humming birds' feathers, Gould used pure gold leaf over-painted with transparent oil colours and varnish. The birds are often shown in flight, darting or hovering among flowers, in order to bring out every aspect of their plumage.

Gould's own remarkable collection of 1500 mounted humming birds was exhibited in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, during the Great Exhibition of 1851. It attracted 75,000 visitors, including Queen Victoria, who recorded in her diary: "It is impossible to imagine anything so lovely as these little Humming Birds, their variety, and the extraordinary brilliance of their colours". A supplement, issued by Henry Sotheran, was published in 1887.

Provenance: Avicultural Society T.H. Newman Bequest 1944, bookplate; acquired from De Goederen, Amsterdam, 4 January 1954; the library of Wassenaar Zoo.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.

CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.

HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. 1899-1961. PUTNAM, SAMUEL, translator. Kiki's Memoirs. Paris: Sign of the Black Manikin, 1930.