[GOULD, John]. SHARPE, R. Bowdler Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-Birds. Henry Sotheran & Co. 1891-8.
Elephant folio. 2 vols. Recently bound by Shepherds in full green morocco, elaborate gilt borders to sides, spines with gilt raised bands, panels and lettering, gilt turn-ins, green silk endpapers, all edges gilt; title-page to each volume, 79 later hand-coloured lithographic plates, mostly by and after W. Hart or by Hart after J. Gould, a smaller number by Hart after J. G. Keulemans or by and after Keulemans, with text leaves, this copy also with extra uncoloured plate of Brown-Winged Paradise-Crow; near fine.
First edition. This monumental monograph came after the death of John Gould and is a summation of the great ornithologist's work on this beautiful family of birds. "Gould, in his Birds of New Guinea, figured nearly every species known in his day, and he had intended to publish a complete Monograph of the Family, for which purpose he kept the lithographic stones from which the plates had been prepared. Thus it came to pass that when Messrs. Sotheran purchased the stock of Gould's works after his death, they acquired the stones with which he had intended to illustrate his Monograph of the Paradiseidae. Many of them were broken or otherwise damaged, and of these some have been redrawn or replaced by new plates by Mr. Hart. Since Gould's time, however, many marvellous new species have been discovered, and these have been described and figured in the present work" (Preface).
The text is by the eminent ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909) who had completed Gould's Birds of New Guinea after his death in 1881 and who successfully rounded up the subscribers to finish this work, which Sacheverell Sitwell dubbed "“the last of the fine bird books".
This copy of the complete text and plates of this magnificent work lay uncoloured in Sotheran's vaults since it was printed in the 1890s. It was rediscovered in 2020 and has been hand-coloured by our expert colourist and bound in a fully sumptuous Victorian style in keeping with the book itself.
Fine Bird Books 107; Nissen, IVB 865; Zimmer 581; Wood 565.
#2119889