GOULD, John - SHARPE, Richard Bowdler.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or Birds of Paradise, and Ptilonorhynchidae, or Bower-birds. First edition, of what is in effect Gould's final book - published by his partner Richard Bowdler Sharp using many of Gould's designs."It could be argued that the Monograph of the Paradiseidae (birds of paradise), 1891-98, is the climax to Gould's life work. He included many of them in his Birds of New Guinea; but many new species were discovered after his death in 1881, and it fell to Dr Bowdler Sharpe, who completed others of Gould's projects, to compile the great work on the Paradiseida, which is the last of the Fine Bird Books" (Sitwell, p. 43). With the passing of Gould and the completion of his lifework, the era of the great bird colour plate books drew to a close: nothing produced since has equalled this volume.

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