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John Gould married Elizabeth Coxen in 1827. She was an important part of the history of the recording of the birds and animals of our country. Elizabeth traveled and worked with John until her death in 1841. Just after their marriage Gould acquired a collection of bird skins from the Himalayas, many of them new to Europe. After he stuffed and mounted them - he was a skilled taxidermist, Gould realized their value and his new life as a bird illustrator began. Elizabeth helped to draw, lithograph, and color many of his first plates. Over the next 57 years Gould published more than forty large folio volumes. The first set appeared in 1831 and the last in 1888, seven years after Gould's death.
History says that Gould himself did the original sketches for all the plates. Other artists - Elizabeth Gould, Edward Lear, Joseph Wolf, William Hart, and H.C. Richter did most of the hand coloring and lithography. With the hummingbirds, which are naturally iridescent, gold or silver leaf was used under the watercolor to mirror their natural beauty. Richard Bowdler Sharp cooperated with Gould on his later works and supervised the completion of the works after Gould's death in 1881.
In his pursuit of new and different birds, John Gould with Elizabeth and the team,traveled to Asia, Australia and the East Indies, as part of our early explorers and recorders of what was found in these new lands. John Gould’s series of natural history plates is considered by many as the finest works of bird illustrations ever presented. His Hummingbirds, along with his Toucans and his Birds of Paradise, are generally most in demand by collectors, but his other works are the same exquisite quality.
The making of these prints was technically and artistically demanding. Gould's original sketches were transferred to stone with special pencils or chalk. They were printed by hand from the stones. Each print was hand-colored, and issued in small sets to subscribers only. As the prints were very expensive for their time, only a few hundred of the wealthiest people and institutions could afford them, accounting for their rarity today.
What we have here is an old private collection of quality prints produced by the British Museum of National History. Each one has their stamp on the back, and a full copy of John Goulds original explainations. They are attractively mounted on strong card.
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