GOULD (John). The Birds of Great Britain. London, Taylor and - Lot 276

GOULD (John). The Birds of Great Britain. London, Taylor and Francis, for the Author, 1862-1873. 5 volumes in-folio, red half-chagrin with corners, spine decorated with gilt fillets, ornate nerves, gilt head (period binding). First edition of this magnificent book, the most famous of all those written by John Gould (1804-1881) and the most sumptuous ever published on the birds of Great Britain. Illustrated with 367 lithographed and brush-colored plates after drawings by Gould, Joseph Wolf, Henry Constantine Richter and William Hart. (Fine Bird Books, p. 102; Mullens & Swann, p. 242; Nissen, IVB, 372; Sauer, 23; Zimmer, p. 261). The Birds of Great Britain is the most popular work of the great ornithologist John Gould, and forms part of his project to describe all the birds of the world, published in large format. In 1837, Gould published a compendium of the birds of Europe, and from 1840 to 1869 the birds of Australia. In addition to the precision and beauty of the birds' depictions, the work is distinguished by the complexity of its scenes, with exact depictions of females, nests, eggs and chicks. Gould himself explains in the preface: I feld that there was an opportunity of greatly enriching the work by giving figures of the young of many of the species of various genera - a thing hitherto almost entirely neglected by authors ; and iI feel assured that this infantile age of the bird life will be of much interest. The texts are more developed than in any of his other publications. The work appeared in 25 issues, bound in 5 volumes. This is the work with the most extensive list of subscribers. An attractive copy in contemporary binding, bearing the bookplate of Mark Rolle, with his motto Nec rege nec populo sed utroque (Neither king nor people, but both). One of 315 subscribers, he appears in the list printed at the beginning of Volume I. The Hon. George Kerr Rolle (1835-1905), of Stevenstone, St Giles in the Wood, was High Sheriff of Devon in 1864. Worn edges and corners, minor rubbing to nerves.