Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds - photo 1
Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds - photo 2
Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds - photo 3
Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds - photo 4
Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds - photo 5
Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds - photo 6

Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds

Lot 121
16.10.2025 10:00UTC +01:00
Classic
Sold
$ 35 560
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1472043
Lot 121 | Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds
Estimate value
$ 30 000 – 50 000
SHARPE, R. Bowdler (1847-1909). Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds. London: Taylor and Francis for Henry Sotheran, 1891-1898.

A fine copy of Sharpe’s Birds of Paradise in contemporary full morocco. The striking life-size plates led Sitwell to call Sharpe's monograph “the last of the fine bird books” (p.43). Sharpe had appealed for subscribers for a proposed monograph on “the Avifauna Paupasia” in his preface to John Gould's Birds of New Guinea, which Sharpe had completed after Gould's death in 1881. The response to his appeal was clearly enthusiastic, for only three years later, the first part of the Paradiseidae was published. A few of the plates are printed from the stones used in the Birds of New Guinea, but “a great number of the species are here figured for the first time,” according to Sharpe's preface. This copy in lovely condition and virtually spotless. BM(NH) IV,p.1910; Sitwell Fine Bird Books p.142; Nissen IVB 865; Wood p.565 (“a splendid monograph”); Zimmer p.581.

Two volumes, large folio (545 x 375mm). Letterpress titles, preface, introduction, text, appendix, lists of contents and plates, 79 hand-colored lithographic plates by W. Hart, after his own work and John Gould and J.G. Keulemans, 13 uncolored illustrations in the text after photographs. Contemporary green morocco richly gilt, spine gilt in compartments, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt (mild scuffing to joints and tips). Provenance: John Eliot Thayer, 1862-1933 (ornithological bookplates).
Place of origin:England
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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02.10.2025 – 16.10.2025
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