statelibrarynsw: The Birds of New Guinea and the adjacent...

Source: providencepubliclibrary.tumblr.com --- Tuesday, May 30, 2017
statelibrarynsw : The Birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan islands, including any new species that may be hereafter discovered in Australia, of which it may be considered a continuation by John Gould. Published by the author, 1875-1888, Bedford Square, London These magnificent plates are part of one of the number of volumes of ‘Gould’s Birds’ held by the Library in our Rare Book collection. John Gould (1804-1881) was an immensely successful publisher. Over his lifetime he produced 21 titles, 15 of which were folio sets consisting of 49 volumes containing 2999 unique plates. In 1870, 1062 individuals, institutions and libraries possessed one or more of his titles and, at one point, Gould’s subscription list was valued at £143,000. Gould had quickly recognised the commercial possibilities offered by the hand-coloured lithographic format in a limited edition. He also understood the importance of selling to institutions such as public, university and museum libraries. The complete sets held by institutions like the State Library have become increasingly rare, given that the sets owned by individuals were often broken up and sold. A chance to see a selection of the Library’s Gould volumes will be on Wednesday July 26th, 2017 when the Rare books team librarians will present a talk, John Gould: The Bird Man. Numbers are limited and bookings are essential. If you can’t make it, see our online gallery of images from this volume via ...

from Australia http://ift.tt/2r7CgPq