A synopsis of the birds of Australia, and the adjacent islands
Four parts. London: the author, January 1837–April 1837–April 1838–April 1838. First edition, first issue.
Quarto (11” x 7 9/16”, 281mm x 192mm).
Part I: 19 leaves (text, blank). With 19 hand-colored lithographed plates, heightened in gum arabic. Two-leaf prospectus for the Synopsis and for the Birds of Europe tipped in to the recto of the front paste-down.
Part II: 18 leaves (text, blank (some leaves with text continuing verso)). With 18 hand-colored lithographed plates, heightened in gum arabic.
Part III: 18 leaves (text, blank). With 18 hand-colored lithographed plates, heightened in gum arabic.
Part IV: 24 leaves; pp. [40] (text, blank for each plate; with 2 family fly-titles (text, blank)), 1 2-8 (8pp. “Descriptions of new species of Australian birds. Principally in the author’s collection, with characters of several new genera; Read at the Scientific Meeting of the Zoological Society in December 1837.”) With 18 hand-colored lithographed plates, heightened in gum arabic.
With 73 hand-colored lithographed plates heightened in gum arabic in toto.
Bound in the publisher’s printed paper-covered boards (with advertisements to the rear board of parts I-II) backed in green patterned cloth. All edges of the text-block untrimmed. Presented in a green morocco-backed clam-shell box.
Spines sunned, and some wear and fraying to the extremities. Some staining to the rear board of part IV, not affecting the text. Foxing to the tipped-in prospectus, and very mildly on scattered leaves. Offsetting at the plates. Graphite collation notes to the recto of the front free end-paper (in English) and to the rear paste-down (in German) of each volume.
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 went, most unusually for the times, to Australia. They remained there for two years, with John Gould traversing the mainland as well as Tasmania to observe and procure specimens, and Elizabeth Gould remaining on the coast to produce the drawings.
The magisterial Birds of Australia would appear in parts from 1840 to 1848, but the first appearance of the project was this four-part Synopsis, issued while he was still in-country. Allen McEvey (John Gould’s Contribution to British Art) makes a compelling case that Elizabeth Gould alone was responsible for the finished drawings. Indeed, there is an immediacy and almost three-dimensional abstraction to the disembodied drawings; this is amplified by the lavish application of gum arabic in the present example. The first issue is distinguished by its rich coloration; the second issue, which is usually bound in a standard green publisher’s binding, was circulated at some point in the 1850’s along with a title-page.
The set was purchased at 22 October 2017 sale of the collection of Martin Copley at Mossgreen (lot 109, A$42,160). Copley (1940–2014) was born in England but had long family ties to Australia. In 1991 Copley founded the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, the country’s largest. In 2010 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his environmental work.
Ayer/Zimmer p. 254; Ferguson, Bibliography of Australia 2271; Fine Bird Books 101; McGill/Wood p. 364; Nissen, IVB 382 and SVB 198; Sauer, John Gould: The Bird Man 5.
Item #JLR0717
Price: $45,000