Beschreibung:

GOULD, John (1804-1881). A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans. London: Taylor and Francis for the author, [1852-] 1854.
GOULD, John (1804-1881). A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans. London: Taylor and Francis for the author, [1852-] 1854. Large 2° (543 x 363 mm). 51 hand-colored lithographic plates after and by Gould and Henry Constantine Richter, and 1 uncolored lithographic plate by G. Scharf, printed by Hullmandel & Walton. (Light spotting to plates throughout, neatly penciled plate numbers on text leaves.) Green morocco gilt, covers with broad ruled and tooled border, spine in 6 compartments with 5 double raised bands, lettered in 2, the others gilt with decorative symmetrical pattern composed from various small tools, gilt edges, gilt inner dentelles, by Clyde (extremities rubbed). Provenance : Sir Giles Loder Bt. (1914-1999) British book collector (sold Christie's London 2 June 1999, lot 37, pastedown). A very fine copy of the second, revised and expanded edition of Gould's 1833-5 monograph of the same title. It comprises "new drawings of the old species, and figures and descriptions of no less than eighteen others - all, in fact, that are known up to the present time" (Preface). Gould regarded this edition as a completely new work, both in terms of the number of new species he describes and because, as a result of these discoveries, he proposes a new division of the group into six genera, rather than the original two. The uncolored plate accompanies Richard Owen's text on the anatomy of the toucan, which was written especially for this monograph. Anker 170; Ayer/Zimmer p.259; cf. Fine Bird Books p. 77 (calling for 52 colored plates); Nissen IVB 378; Sauer 19.