Birds of Great Britain. Vol. I-V

Description:

First edition. Fine hand-coloured lithographic plates from drawings by Gould, Joseph Wolf, H.C. Richter and W. Hart, mostly lithographed by Richter and Hart, some heightened with gum arabic. The work was originally issued in twenty-five parts and was well received. Gould stresses its difference from The Birds of Europe in the treatment of the illustrations, the inclusion of figures of young birds and nests, and the more extensive text.

'Gould will always be remembered by the magnificent series of folio works bearing his name (one of which incidentally is the most sumptuous and costly of the British bird books), which are excelled in extent and beauty by the work of no one other ornithologist, past or present' (Mullens & Swann).

'Such beautiful illustrations as those of the Birds of Great Britain scarcely existed before and are not likely to be surpassed' (R. Bowdler Sharpe).

Fine Bird Books, p.78; Mullens & Swann p. 242; Nissen IVB 372; Sauer 23; Wood, p. 365; Zimmer, p. 261.

Condition

5 vols, imp. folio (547x352mm), 19th-century. full green morocco, raised bands, richly gilt to compartments, broad dec. gilt borders to covers, gilt tooling to turn-ins and edges of boards, aeg. One volume professionally rebacked preserving original spine, some rubbing, particularly to joints, with neat leather reinforcements to head/foot of several spines. A little foxing to endpapers and title pages, plates clean, but with a dark area (oxidation of pigment?) above the greenshank (Glottis canescens) with offsetting to this area from text on facing page. A very good set. Provenance: Bookplate Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease (1924-2005), 2nd Baron Wardington and of Lucy Anne Pease, his daughter.