London: the author, 1834-35, First Edition, folio (540 x 368 mm.), Contemporary half green morocco gilt, spine gilt in compartments, dedication leaf, list of subscribers, and 33 Fine Hand-coloured Lithographed Plates by and after Edward Lear, John and Elizabeth Gould, each heightened with gum arabic, one uncoloured lithographed anatomical plate by and after G. Scharf
SUBSCRIBER’S COPY OF GOULD’S FIRST MONOGRAPH.
The Toucan family is limited to Mexico, Central and South America and some West Indian islands.
Lear’s remarkable images of Toucans, which fill the plate, showing the young birds with the fully grown, are regarded as among the best of his zoological drawings; the uncoloured plate accompanies Richard Owen’s final chapter on the anatomy of the toucan, written especially for the work.
Henry Hall Gage, 4th Viscount Gage (1791-1877): named on List of Subscribers (“Gage, the Right Hon. Viscount, M.A., M.R.I., F.Z.S…”), with his bookplate.
Anker 170; Ayer/Zimmer 252; Balis 102; Fine Bird Books 77; McGill/Wood 364; Nissen IVB 378; Sauer 3
