Monograph of the Trochilidae, or family of humming birds.

£175,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

with the rare supplement 'Gould's masterpiece... an incomparable catalogue and compendium of beauties' (Fine Bird Books). The first edition and a spectacular set, with the rare supplement, from the library of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle. Of all the bird families, the hummingbird held the greatest fascination for Gould, and most of the plates were drawn from specimens in his own collection, with the help of a pool of collectors whom he commissioned to hunt for rare or unknown varieties in South America. He exhibited the collection, which included nearly 2,000 birds from 300 different species, at the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851, attracting nearly 75,000 visitors and consolidating his reputation as one of the greatest living ornithologists. To illustrate the birds' iridescent plumage, Gould had used a costly technique of painting in varnish and oils over pure gold leaf, which he claimed to have invented but which he seems in reality to have borrowed with very little modification from the American hummingbird specialist William Bailey. Gould's claim that the subscribers to the Trochilidae included 'nearly all the crowned heads of Europe' (Tree, p. 164) was a slight exaggeration, but there is no doubt that the magnificence of the illustrations, and the Victorian vogue for hummingbirds, attracted a larger and more brilliant audience than all of his other works except The Birds of Great Britain. Gould died after the publicatio

• Binding: Hardcover

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