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) The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, Taylor and Francis [for] the Author, [1862]-1873 image 1
GOULD (JOHN) The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, Taylor and Francis [for] the Author, [1862]-1873 image 2
GOULD (JOHN) The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, Taylor and Francis [for] the Author, [1862]-1873 image 3
GOULD (JOHN) The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, Taylor and Francis [for] the Author, [1862]-1873 image 4
GOULD (JOHN) The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, Taylor and Francis [for] the Author, [1862]-1873 image 5
GOULD (JOHN) The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, Taylor and Francis [for] the Author, [1862]-1873 image 6
Lot 91

GOULD (JOHN)
The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, Taylor and Francis [for] the Author, [1862]-1873

27 November 2018, 13:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £37,500 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)

The Birds of Great Britain, 5 vol., FIRST EDITION, 367 hand-coloured lithographed plates after Gould, Joseph Wolf, H.C. Richter and W. Hart, mostly by Richter and Hart, some heightened with gum arabic, list of subscribers, green morocco gilt by Riviere, spines elaborately tooled within raised bands, t.e.g., single scratch on one cover but generally fresh [Fine Bird Books, p.78; Nissen IVB 372; Sauer 23; Wood, p.365; Zimmer, p.261], folio (558 x 378mm.), Taylor and Francis [for] the Author, [1862]-1873

Footnotes

FINE COPY OF "THE MOST SUMPTUOUS AND COSTLY OF BRITISH BIRD BOOKS" (Mullens and Swann).

Richard Bowdler Sharpe stated that such beautiful ornithological illustrations had "scarcely existed before and are not likely to be surpassed". The majority were drawn by Joseph Wolf, who accompanied Gould on expeditions to find the birds depicted in their natural habitats, and was praised by the author in the preface as an artist "justly celebrated, and who thoroughly understands his subject".

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.