GOULD, John (1804-81). The Birds of Great Britain, London, [1862-]73, 5 volumes, large folio, 367 EXCEPTIONALLY FINE hand-coloured lithographed plates, FINELY BOUND IN 19th-century morocco gilt. FIRST EDITION. With 2 related. (7)

GOULD, John (1804-81, artist).  The Birds of Great Britain. London: "Printed by Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. Published by the Author, 26, Charlotte Street, Bedford Square," [1862-]73. 5 volumes, large folio (554 x 380mm). Printed dedication to The Right Honourable Rowland, Viscount Hill, of Hawkstone, 5-page list of subscribers, text by Nicholas Aylward Vigors, 367 EXCEPTIONALLY FINE HAND-COLOURED PLATES, many heightened with gum arabic, lithographed by Walter, or Walter and Cohn, after John Gould, William Hart, Henry Constantine Richter and Joseph Wolf (marginal spot to first plate in vol. one and 82nd plate in vol. IV ("Phalaropus Fulicarius. Winter plumage") not affecting images, titles lightly spotted, the preliminary text leaves in vol. one lightly browned at margins, a very few plates with some light, mainly marginal, spotting, but otherwise largely pristine). FINELY BOUND in late 19th-century dark green half morocco gilt [unsigned], spines lettered in gilt in one compartment and elaborately decorated in gilt in 5 compartments, top edges gilt (extremities lightly rubbed, some very light scuffing, endpapers [i.e. blanks] quite heavily spotted). Provenance: Ralph Clutton (1809-96, armorial bookplate), and thence by descent. Although the name Clutton does not appear in the printed list of subscribers in the first volume, John Clutton, the great great grandfather of the present owner, is recorded as possessing this copy of 'The Birds of Great Britain' in Gould's Prospectus of Mr Gould's Works on Ornithology, Etc. With a list the Subscribers and Possessors ([London, Published by the Author, 1870]), where his entry reads 'Clutton, J., Esq., Hartwood, Surrey'. A FINE SET OF THE FIRST EDITION OF "THE MOST SUMPTUOUS AND COSTLY OF BRITISH BIRD BOOKS" (Mullins and Swann) which "EXHIBITED THE PERFECTION OF [GOULD'S] WORK" (DNB). "Many of the public are quite unaware how the colouring of these large Plates is accomplished; and not a few believe that they are produced by some mechanical process or by chromo-lithography. This, however, is not the case; every sky with its varied tints and every feather of each bird were coloured by hand; and when it is considered that nearly two hundred and eighty thousand illustrations in the present work have been so treated, it will most likely cause some astonishment to those who give the subject a thought" (from the author's preface). Anker p.60; not in Brunet; Dictionary of National Biography: "The Birds of Great Britain, begun in 1862, exhibited the perfection of [Gould's] work; the plates were executed with remarkable care, the birds being depicted in their natural haunts, with young, nests, [etc.]"; Mullens and Swann p.242: "[Gould's works are] excelled in extent and beauty by the work of no one other ornithologist, past or present ... The most sumptuous and costly of British bird books"; Sauer 23; Sitwell Fine Bird Books (1990) p.102: "The most popular of all his works is always likely to be Birds of Great Britain"; Tree The Ruling Passion of John Gould (1991), p.207; Wood p.365; Nissen IVB 372; Zimmer p.261. With 2 related works including John Gould's An Introduction to the Birds of Great Britain (London, Printed for the Author, by Taylor and Francis, 1873, 8vo, original red cloth gilt). (7)

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