Birds.- Gould (John) The Birds of Great Britain, first edition in the original 25 parts, 367 fine hand-coloured lithographed plates, most heightened with gum arabic, by Gould, Richter, Wolf, and Hart, 2 wood-engraved illustrations, list of subscribers, directions for binder, title-pages for vols I-V, list of plates for vols I-V to part XXV, 1 plate slightly smaller and mounted on paper stub, a few text ff. with short tears to margins of which 1 or 2 repaired, light finger-soiling, occasional foxing, spotting and staining mostly to text, occasionally to plates, sometimes slightly straying into image, occasional offsetting and show-through, some hinges cracked, original cloth-backed pictorial boards, few spines repaired with some loss to portions of original backstrip, some fraying to spine ends and joints, soiled, extremities worn, [Sauer 23; FBB, p102; Nissen IVB 372; Wood p365; Zimmer p261], folio, by the Author, 1862-73.

⁂ John Gould's most popular work, often described as "the most sumptuous and costly of British bird books" (Mullens and Swann). His first collaborative work with Josef Wolf, who brought to Gould's monographs a realistic vigour and sensibility of nature lacking in the work of many of Gould's studio artists.