The Birds of Asia.

London: For the Author, 1850-1883

FIRST EDITION, 7 volumes, folio (541 x 359mm.), contemporary green half morocco list of subscribers, list of plates, 530 hand-coloured lithographed plates by Gould, H.C. Richter, Joseph Wolf and W. Hart, printed by Hullmandel & Walton, T. Walter or Walter & Cohn,

A VERY FINE SET OF THE FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT OF GOULD’S WORKS TO ACQUIRE.

Originally issued in 35 parts, Sharpe completed the three final parts after Gould’s death in 1881.The descriptions by Sharpe are identified by his initials; presumably those not bearing the initials were printed from Gould’s notes. William Hart completed the lithographs from Gould’s sketches. This was the most comprehensive work on Asiatic species at the time, containing illustrations of many birds not previously described and as can be imagined the subjects of the plates are amongst the most varied of Gould’s folios including parrots, pheasants, trogons, kingfishers, sunbirds, woodpeckers, partridges, birds of paradise and pittas.

This massive work was dedicated to the Honourable East India Company and took thirty-four years to produce. Two hundred and seven sets were subscribed for.

John Gould was born in Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast in 1804 but was brought up in Surrey and later Windsor, where his father was one of the gardeners at the castle. The young Gould taught himself taxidermy from an early age and soon established a skill for the craft. Following a brief 18-month stint as gardener at Ripley Hall in Yorkshire, in 1824, he moved to London to establish a shop in the city.

The taxidermy enterprise was a successful one and Gould counted important public figures, including George IV (for whom he stuffed a pet giraffe in 1826), among his clients. In 1828, he won a competition to become taxidermist at the museum of the Zoological Society of London and eventually became the curator of the museum where he developed connections with some of the most prominent naturalists of the day and received specimens from around the world to preserve and prepare for display. He was also noted for his own knowledge of ornithology and in 1836 assisted Charles Darwin in understanding the specimens collected from the Beagle voyage to the Galapagos, demonstrating that the birds collected were not different species as Darwin initially thought, but varieties of the same species, thus inspiring his revolutionary theory of natural selection.

Gould began to publish fine ornithological volumes from 1830. They are among the most famous and important ‘bird-books’ of the nineteenth century and the volumes in the Royal Library were subscribed to by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria.

Later in life, Gould worked on publishing volumes on the spectacularly diverse birds of Asia and New Guinea. Birds of Paradise are included in astounding detail in these works, but Gould died before this mammoth seven-volume work on the Birds of Asia begun in 1850, could be finished. The lithographs were finished by Hart.

Fine Bird Books, p.78; Wood, p.365; Nissen IVB 368; Anker 178.