Beschreibung:

GOULD, John (1804-1881) & Richard Bowdler SHARPE (1847-1909). A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-Birds. London: Taylor and Francis (vols.I-V) for the Author, [1849]-1861; (supplement) for Henry Sotheran & Co., [1880]-1887. 6 volumes (including the Supplement ), large 2° (545 x 360mm). 3pp. subscribers' list. 418 FINE HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES, MANY HIGHLIGHTED IN GOLD LEAF overpainted with transparent varnish and oil colours, by Gould, Henry Constantine Richter and William Hart printed by Hullmandel & Walton, Walter and the Mintern Brothers. Contemporary brown morocco gilt, covers with broad ruled and tooled border, spines in six compartments with double raised bands, lettered in two compartments, the others with elaborate overall tooling, g.e., (very light occasional scuffing of surface of the leather, five free-endpapers and two front blanks with vertical crease). FIRST EDITION. A FINE COPY OF GOULD'S "MASTERPIECE... AN INCOMPARABLE CATALOGUE AND COMPENDIUM OF BEAUTIES" ( Fine Bird Books p.29). Most of the subjects came from Gould's own collection of Humming-bird specimens, a number of which he exhibited at the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens during the Great Exhibition of 1851. The plates gave Gould the chance to display the new technique of imitating the birds' iridescent plumage by the use of brilliant metallic colouring. Nissen IVB 380; Anker 177; Fine Bird Books p.78; Sauer 16 & 29; Wood p.365; Ayer/Zimmer pp.258 & 263-264. (6)