Monograph of the Paradiseidae, London, 1891-1898, contemporary green morocco gilt

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£ 50 800
Auction dateClassic
21.09.2023 10:00UTC +01:00
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Sotheby´s
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United Kingdom, London
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ID 1026126
Lot 17 | Monograph of the Paradiseidae, London, 1891-1898, contemporary green morocco gilt
Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-Birds. London: Henry Sotheran & Co. [printed by Taylor and Francis], 1891-1898

2 volumes, folios (552 x 377mm.), title-page to each volume, 79 hand-coloured lithographed plates, many heightened with gum arabic, 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, in-text woodcuts and halftone illustrations, contemporary green morocco gilt by Henry Sotheran, spines with raised bands in seven compartments, gilt edges, silk endpapers, spines very slightly sunned

A magnificent copy in an immaculate binding.

"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" (Appendix)."

The last of the fine bird books.
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