We are happy as larks to be presenting Taking Flight, an exhibition that benefits the American Bird Conservancy. As such, I thought it would be very apropos to find a recent auction item with a bird theme…I was successful!
John Gould (1804 – 1881) was an English ornithologist and artist; he illustrated and published monographs on birds, and is considered one of the most significant figures in bird illustrations, second only to Audubon. One of his most sought-after publications is titled Birds of Great Britain, which Gould self-published and produced just 750 copies of. The set contains 25 volumes, completed between 1863-1873, and contains 367 colored lithographs. Although Gould did not do all the illustrations himself, he did supervise their production and took great pride and joy in the images.
A 1st edition, complete set, compiled into a five-volume set, was recently offered and quickly flew past the estimate of £15 -25K ($19.5 – 32.6K) when it sold for £51K ($66.6K)!