The birds of Great Britain
THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE SET
Five volumes. London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, [1862–]1873. First edition.
Folio (21 9/16” x 14 11/16”, 548mm x 373mm).
Vol. I: binder’s blank, π-2π2 A2 B-2N2 χ-35χ1, binder’s blank. 1 11 leaves, pp. [12] (title, blank, dedication, blank, 5pp. subscribers, blank, 2pp. preface) i ii-cxl [2] (list of plates, blank), [68] (2pp. text for each plate, except for 3 plates). With 37 hand-colored lithographs.
Vol. II: binder’s blank, 78 leaves (title, blank, 2pp. list of plates; 2pp. text for each plate, except for 2 plates). With 78 hand-colored lithographs.
Vol. III: binder’s blank, 72 leaves, binder’s blank (title, blank, 2pp. list of plates; 2pp. text for each plate except for 6 plates). With 76 hand-colored lithographs.
Vol. IV: binder’s blank, 87 leaves, binder’s blank (title, blank, 2pp. list of plates; 2pp. text for each plate, except for 6 plates and 1 plate with 4pp. text). With 90 hand-colored lithographs.
Vol. V: binder’s blank, 88 leaves, binder’s blank (title, blank, 2pp. list of plates; 2pp. text for each plate). With 86 hand-colored lithographs.
With 367 hand-colored lithographs in toto after J. Gould, Joseph Wolf and Henry Constantine Richter.
Bound in contemporary burgundy straight-grained morocco by Riviere and Son for Sotheran (stamped at the verso of the front free end-paper of each volume) with a wide gilt roll border and the cypher of the Duke of Devonshire: double D’s within a wreath, surmounted with the coronet of a duke. On the spine, six raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel. Number and order(s) gilt to the third panel. Imprint gilt to the tail. Gilt scrollwork and pointillé tools in the remaining panels. A gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Floral gilt roll to the turn-ins, with marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt.
Spines sunned, with some bumping and scuffs to the peripheries of the boards. Old repairs to the lower edge of the joints. The end-leaves a little foxed. An altogether fresh set in a ducal binding.
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 and the [1840]–1869 Bird of Australia with its Supplement, Gould responded to popular demand for birds of the British Isles. The Birds of Great Britain was Gould’s most popular of his large-format multi-volume ornithological works, with the greatest number of subscribers. Gould’s challenge was to circumvent the conception of British birds as ordinary or unremarkable. He had to bring the birds that circled overhead before his readers’ eyes with freshness and striking beauty. The complexity of the scenes grew, with tableaux of nests, chicks and eggs joining the usual modes of depiction.
Gould wrote in the Preface that he “felt that there was an opportunity of greatly enriching the work by giving figures of the young of many of the species of various genera - a thing hitherto almost entirely neglected by authors; and I feel assured that this infantile age of birdlife will be of much interest…” The text is longer than in any of his other works, and many of the illustrations were prepared from freshly-killed specimens. Wolf, who drew 57 of the plates, was responsible for persuading Gould and Richter to adopt a livelier treatment of the illustrations.
William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire (1808–1891) was a lifelong supporter of Gould’s. Unlike many members of the high nobility of his day, he was profoundly intellectual, winning the Smith’s Prize for mathematics in 1829 (other winners include John Herschel and James Clerk Maxwell) while at Trinity College, Cambridge. He would go on to be the inaugural Chancellor of the University of London, and later Chancellor of his alma mater. He subscribed for Gould’s publications, including the present work. In addition to the present set another remains in the library at Chatsworth,[1] the duke having subscribed, apparently, for two (though not noted in the subscribers’ list, nor is a second set mentioned in the 1879 catalogue of the house (vol. II, p. 198)).
Ayer/Zimmer p. 261; McGill/Wood, p. 365; Nissen, IVB 372; Sauer 23; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 78.
[1] Thanks to Ms. Louise Clarke, librarian at Chatsworth, for confirming this; the set remaining in the library has the same binding. Perhaps Gould presented a set in addition to the duke’s subscribed set?
Item #JLR0746
Price: $250,000