Prints and drawings Ornithology Gould, John
Gould, John
.
The Birds of Asia (76)
About the original publication:
GOULD, John (1804-1881, publisher)
'The Birds of Asia'
London: 1850-1883. Hand-coloured lithograph by J.Wolf and H.C.Richter, printed by Walter.
Sheet size: 14 5/8 x 21 1/4 inches.
The intended geographical range of "The Birds of Asia" was enormous, and very much in keeping with the seemingly limitless self-belief of the 19th-century's best known ornithologist. In his all-encompassing work John Gould includes species from all corners of the eastern world, as Richard Bowdler Sharpe noted the work covers "Species from Palestine to the eastward, and from the Moluccas to the west". Gould chose to record the bird life from an area which, with the exception of the tropical areas of the American continent, includes the widest, and most colourful variety of bird life to be found anywhere in the world.
A Monograph of the Trochilidae or Family of Hummingbirds (75)
Throughout his professional life Gould had a strong interest in hummingbirds. He accumulated a collection of 320 species, which he exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Despite his interest Gould had never seen a live hummingbird. In May 1857 he travelled to the United States with his second son Charles. He arrived in New York too early in the season to see hummingbirds in that city, but on 21 May 1857 in Bartram's Gardens in Philadelphia he finally saw his first live bird, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. He then continued to Washington D.C. where he saw large numbers in the gardens of the Capitol. Gould attempted to return to England with live specimens, but not being aware of the conditions necessary to keep them they only lived for two months at most.
Considered to be Gould's masterpiece in both breadth and beauty, four hundred eighteen species are depicted by the artists John Gould, H.C. Richter and William Hart. Each plate exquisitely portrays these delicate, evocatively colored birds with the flowers indigenous to their area. Strong botanical elements add a dimension not found in other bird folios. A Family of Humming-birds also displays a tour de force of the hand-colored lithograph as a medium.
'There is no one appreciative of the beauties of nature who will not recall... with delight the time when a live humming-bird first met his gaze. The suddenness of the apparition, even when expected, and its brief duration, are alone enough to fix the fluttering vision on the mind's eye.... The beautiful nests of humming-birds... will be found on examination to be very solidly and tenaciously built, though the materials are generally of the slightest - cotton-wool or some vegetable down and spider's webs' (Alfred Newton in 'The Encyclopedia Britannica 1911, vol. 13, p.887). The Hummingbird family includes members that are the smallest birds in the world. The largest measures no more than 8 1/2 inches and the smallest 2 3/8 inches in length. They are confined to the American continent and its islands, but are wide ranging within this limitation, with over 400 different species covering an area from the fuchias of Tierra del Fuego in the south to the althaea bushes of Toronto gardens in the north.
A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans I (33)
Large 2° (542 x 360mm). 33 hand-coloured lithographic plates by and after Edward Lear (10) and John and Elizabeth Gould (23), one uncoloured plate by and after George Scharf, all printed by Charles Hullmandel.
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.
