Beschreibung:

John Gould (1804-1881) and Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909) The Birds of Asia. London: Taylor and Francis for the author, January 1850 - October 1883. 7 volumes, broadsheet (550 x 375mm). 3pp. subscribers' list. 530 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates, most heightened with gum-arabic, by Gould, Henry Constantine Richter, William Hart and Joseph Wolf printed by Hullmandel & Walton, Walter or Walter & Cohn. (Light spotting to titles, preliminaries and last few leaves and about 30 plates, tail of pheasant or Cheer , plate 18, vol.VII, truncated as usual.) Contemporary red half morocco gilt, spines in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and third, the others with repeat decoration composed from various small tools, gilt edges (some very light scuffing to extremities). Provenance : Lionel Phillips (armorial bookplate) - Sale, these rooms, 18 March 1981 lot 136 £24,000 to Evans. A VERY FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. The intended geographical range of the work was enormous, and very much in keeping with the seemingly limitless self-belief of the 19th-century's best known ornithologist. As Sharpe writes in his excellent introduction, the work covers "Species from Palestine to the westward, and from the Moluccas to the east." Unsurprisingly, the subjects of the plates are the amongst the most varied of Gould's folios including trogons, kingfishers, sunbirds, woodpeckers, partridges, parrots, pittas and pheasants. Originally issued in 35 original parts to 207 subscribers, the three final parts were completed by Sharpe after Gould's death in 1881. The descriptions by Sharpe are identified by his initials, those not bearing his initials were presumably printed from Gould's notes. Hart completed the lithographs from Gould's sketches. Anker 178; Fine Bird Books p.78; Nissen IVB 368; Sauer 17; Wood p.365; Zimmer pp.258-9. (7)