"THE TROCHILIDAE OF GOULD IS HIS MASTERPIECE, AND MUST EVER REMAIN

"THE TROCHILIDAE OF GOULD IS HIS MASTERPIECE, AND MUST EVER REMAIN A FEAST OF BEAUTY AND A SOURCE OF WONDER" - THE GODMAN–ELWES–CASARES SET. GOULD, John (1804–1881). A monograph of the trochilidæ or family of humming-birds WITH A monograph of the trochilidæ or family of humming-birds by John Gould, F.R.S. completed after the author’s death by R. Bowdler Sharpe, F.L.S. &c., zoological department, British Museum. Supplement. A monograph of the trochilidæ or family of humming-birds. Five volumes in six. London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, [1849–]1861. WITH A monograph of the trochilidæ or family of humming-birds by John Gould, F.R.S. completed after the author’s death by R. Bowdler Sharpe, F.L.S. &c., zoological department, British Museum. Supplement. London: Henry Sotheran & Co., [1880–]1887. Here is what AI says it’s worth: $134,000. Cost: Sotheby’s New York sale of 15 December 2005, lot 589 - $156,000. Folio (21 13/16” x 14 5/8”). Vol. I: binder’s blank, A-B2 C-2F2 2G1 2H-2L2, χ-41χ1, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 108 leaves, pp. [4] (title; blank; dedication to Victoria, Princess Royal; blank) i-v (3pp. subscribers, blank, preface) vi-cxxvii [3] (imprint, list of plates, blank), [82] (text, blank for each plate (except the first, with text verso)). [=cxxxiv, 82] With 41 hand-colored lithographs. Vol. II: binder’s blank, [4] (title, blank, list of plates, blank) [150] (text, blank for each plate (a handful with text verso)), binder’s blank. With 75 hand-colored lithographs. Vol. III: binder’s blank, [4] (title, blank, list of plates, blank) [176] (text, blank (a handful with text verso) for each plate except 4pp. text for pl. 15, Trochilus colubris), binder’s blank. With 87 hand-colored lithographs. Vol. IV: binder’s blank, [4] (title, blank, list of plates, blank) [160] (text, blank (a handful with text verso) for each plate), binder’s blank. With 80 hand-colored lithographs. Vol. V: binder’s blank, [4] (title, blank, list of plates, blank) [154] (text, blank (a handful with text verso) for each plate), binder’s blank. With 77 hand-colored lithographs. “Covers:” 30 printed wrappers (blue, verso white and blank) for the 25 parts of the Monograph and 5 of the Supplement.[1] Supplement: binder’s blank, [8] (title, imprint, preface, blank, 2pp. contents, 2pp. list of plates) [200] (text, blank for each plate, plus 42 leaves of text without plates). With 58 hand-colored lithographs. With 418 hand-colored lithographed plates (360 in the main work) in toto, heightened in gum arabic, with mineral pigments, oil pigments and varnish, often over metallic leaf. Collated complete against the lists of plates and against Anker. Bound in contemporary dark brown half morocco over pebbled cloth. On the spine, five raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, author and number gilt to the fourth, dates gilt at the tail. Marbled end-papers. Top edge of the text-block gilt. Scuffed generally, with some rubbing at high-points and a few patches of skinning and edge-wear. Foxing at the end-leaves of each volume, and mild even tanning throughout. Offsetting at some plates, but an altogether exceptionally clean set. Armorial bookplate of Frederick DuCane Godman to the front paste-down of each volume with the bookplate of Jorge Casares below; in vol. IV, a second armorial bookplate of Casares is above Godman’s. With laid-in descriptions from John Howell in voll. IV and V. John Gould (1804–1881) conceived, in the generation after Audubon, a massive project: to illustrate the world’s birds in a regal format. His multi-volume works on the birds of every continent but Africa are celebrated for their plates, after Gould and Gould’s wife Elizabeth, and by a quartet of the most celebrated natural history artists of the XIXc: William Matthew Hart, Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter and Joseph Wolf. The Trochilidae (birds of Central and South America), which was begun in the middle of his career and the Supplement completed only after his death, is celebrated most enthusiastically by Sitwell in his Fine Bird Books: “The humming-birds are so beautiful in themselves that the ecstasy of delight into which they throw one should not let it appear that the Trochilidae, in aesthetics, is other than among the most beautiful of Victorian illustrated books… an incomparable catalogue and compendium of beauties… All in all, the Trochilidae of Gould is his masterpiece, and must ever remain a feast of beauty and a source of wonder” (pp. 39-40). As with his Birds of Australia, Gould, working from London, was dissatisfied that he had been complete, such that over 30 years after beginning the project he sought to supplement it. He produced only the first part (1880) before his death. The project was shepherded through the press (the expense taken up by Sotheran, the printing still done by Taylor and Francis) by Osbert Salvin and completed by Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847–1909), a great ornithologist in his own right, who might be considered Gould’s heir. Frederick DuCane Godman (1834–1919) was a founding member of the British Ornithologists’ Union (publisher of The Ibis), best known for his work on Central American birds, most notably the 63-volume Biologia Centrali-Americana. Godman worked with Sharpe on this project, making this an association set; neither he nor the BOU appear to have been subscribers. Godman’s books were dispersed by Sotheby’s in March 1921; the present set was lot 704 (third day, 3 March), with the covers volume noted. (The remainder, including another set of the Trochilidae but without the wrappers, was sold by Francis Edwards from June of 1921; that inferior set was sold for £75). The purchaser is recorded as Elwes, and the price a staggering £70. This is surely the distinguished naturalist Henry John Elwes (1846–1922). Elwes published a Monograph on the Genus Lilium (1880) and is perhaps most celebrated for the vast Trees of Great Britain & Ireland (1906–1913, with Augustine Henry). His interests were broader still, including a 25,000-specimen strong collection of moths butterflies that he presented to the Natural History Museum. Elwes died just 18 months later, and perhaps the set was acquired by Quaritch, which had bought the Ramphastidae, Trogonidae and New Guinea at the same sale (lots 703, 709 and 710). They, in turn, might have sold the set to Dr. Jorge Casares (1879–1963), under whom the Associación Ornitológica del Plata, the principal bird conservation charity in Argentina, flourished. In his obituary he is noted for his important library, as well as for his own contributions to the bibliography of birds, notably the 1936 Systematic Catalogue of the Birds of Argentina. The description of John Howell Books (434 Post Street, San Francisco) description (1960’s?) reads: “A magnificent copy… Bernard Quaritch & Co. believe this to be the finest copy that they have seen--we heartily concur.” Offered for sale at the Sotheby’s New York sale of 15 December 2005, lot 589. Anker 177 & 182; Nissen, IVB 380; Sauer 16 & 29; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books p. 102. [1] Monograph: I: June 1st, 1849, 15 species described; II: November 1st, 1851, 15 species; III: May 1st, 1852, 15 species; IV: October 1st, 1852, 15 species; V: May 1st, 1853, 15 species; VI: October 1st, 1853, 15 species; VII: May 1st, 1854, 15 species; VIII: October 1st, 1854, 15 species; IX: May 1st, 1855, 15 species; X: September 1st, 1855, 15 species; XI: May 1st, 1856, 15 species; XII: September 1st, 1856, 15 species; XIII: May 1st, 1857, 15 species; XIV: September 1st, 1857, 15 species; XV: May 1st, 1858, 15 species; XVI: September 1st, 1858, 15 species; XVII: May 1st, 1859, 15 species; XVIII: September 1st, 1859, 16 species (on 15 plates); XIX: May 1st, 1860, 15 species; XX: September 1st, 1860, 15 species; XXI: May 1st, 1861, 15 species; XXII: July 1st, 1861, 15 species; XXIII: September 1st, 1861, 15 species; XXIV: September 1st, 1861, 15 species; XXV: September 1st, 1861, preliminaries only. Supplement: I: August 1st, 1880, 12 species described; II: January 1st, 1881, 10 species; III: January 1st, 1883, 30 species; IV: April 16th, 1885, 29 species; V: March, 1887, 41 species. (NB Sauer does not record dates for parts II-IV, just years.)

Estimate:£112,106.25

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