A monograph of the macropodidæ or family of kangaroos. By John Gould, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c.
“AN ANIMAL PERFECTLY NEW AND UNDESCRIBED”
Two parts (of 3; all issued) in one volume. London: published by the author, [August 1st 1841–]May 1st 1842. First edition.
Folio (21 9/16” x 14 3/8”, 547mm x 365mm): 31 leaves, pp. [62] (text to each plate, blank; plus the cancelled description of the Petrogale robusta, blank). With 30 hand-colored lithographed plates printed by Hullmandel after Gould and H.C. Richter. The wrapper to part II bound in lieu of a title-page (never issued). Letterpress slip announcing the cancellation bound in before the cancellandum.
Bound in early-XXc red morocco gilt by ?Habsher of Hampshire, England (their stamp at the lower front turn-in) with a foliate roll border between fillets gilt. On the spine, five raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel. Date gilt to the tail. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Double gilt fillet to the turn-ins. Red watered-silk doublure end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt.
Some scuffs to the binding. The wrapper laid down, with chips at the fore and soiling generally. Mildly foxed, with the odd split. “[I.]-” added in graphite to the part-wrapper. “Cancelled” in graphite to the cancellandum at the rear.
John Gould (1804–1881) conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world’s birds in a regal format. He is best known for his multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa. Following the success of his 1837 Birds of Europe, Gould with his wife Elizabeth — the principal artist of the work, responsible for some 600 of the plates — went, most unusually for the times, to Australia. The present work, issued in the course of the publication of the Birds of Europe, is one of two non-avian books (the second, Mammals of Australia ([1845]–1863), drawing on 15 of the illustrations in the present work) that Gould published.
John Hawkesworth quotes Sir Joseph Banks, the naturalist who sailed with Captain Cook, describing the kangaroo as “an animal perfectly new and undescribed.” The marsupial as an infraclass was described only in 1811, though the first members to be encountered by Europeans were opossums from South America. Macropods (including kangaroos, wallabies and quokkas), native to Australia, New Guinea and other nearby islands, in the present work receive their first holistic treatment.
Nissen, ZBI 1662; Sauer 11.
Item #JLR0657
Price: $65,000