• [HISTOIRE NATURELLE]. [ORNITHOLOGIE].

- [NATURAL HISTORY]. [ORNITHOLOGY].
GOULD John (1804-1881)
A century of birds from the Himalaya mountains.
London, s.n., [1831-]1832. Large folio (560 x 385 mm), [6-72] ff, 80 plates. Dark green half-basin with corners, boards with gilt fillets and cold-stamped friezes, spine titled and decorated in gilt, gilt head, pink paper endpapers (period binding).
Very rare first edition, first issue of the first folio book on birds by the famous British ornithologist and naturalist
John Gould (1804-1881).
Beautifully illustrated with 80 hand-colored lithographed plates depicting 102 birds, including hawks, owls, woodpeckers, hornbills and kingfishers, etc., drawn by Elizabeth
Gould (1804-1841) from sketches by her husband. First issue with colorless backgrounds (second issue has colored plants and backgrounds). Text by N. Vigors.
John Gould learned taxidermy at Windsor Castle, where his father worked as foreman of the gardening crew. In 1827 he became curator of the museum of the Zoological Society of
London. The arrival in 1830 of a collection of exotic bird skins, mainly from the Indian Himalayas, enabled him to produce this first of his many superb books on birds in folio, later followed by the multiple volumes of Birds of Europe (1832-1837) and Birds of Australia (1840-1848).
VERY FRESH COLOURS. A VERY GOOD copy.
(Scattered foxing on a few plates| transfers to the verso of some plates).