GOULD, John; Elizabeth Gould. Art

Joseph Wolf Lithograph c.1940

Joseph Wolf Lithograph c.1940

Green shell lithograph of a cone shell. Print is edition 33 of 34. Signed and dated by the artist along with titled. Print is framed in a golden frame...

A Lying Animal is a black and white print realized by Friedrich Specht in 1880. Lithograph on dark paper. Original Title: Derendet. Dated 1880, p.24. Signed by the artist on the r...

Cangaroos in Danger is a black and white lithograph realized by Friedrich Specht in 1879. Image dimensions: 19,7 x 13,7 cm. Original Title: Am Auftralifchen "Bufch". Dated 1879 an...

Original large format Qantas Japan Australia's Overseas Airline vintage travel poster. This antique poster is archival linen backed and in very fine condition. This image was al...

John Gould (British, 1804-1881) Nasiterna Pygmae c. 1849-1861 Hand Colored Lithograph Image Size: approx 19.5 x 13.5 inches Framed Size: 27 3/8 x 21 1/2 inches John Gould was an English ornithologist and bird artist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species. Gould was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, the son of a gardener, and the boy probably had a scanty education. Shortly afterwards his father obtained a position on an estate near Guildford, Surrey, and then in 1818 became foreman in the Royal Gardens of Windsor. He was for some time under the care of J T Aiton, of the Royal Gardens of Windsor. The young Gould started training as a gardener, being employed under his father at Windsor from 1818 to 1824, and he was subsequently a gardener at Ripley Castle in Yorkshire. He became an expert in the art of taxidermy, and in 1824 he set himself up in business in London as a taxidermist, and his skill led to him becoming the first Curator and Preserver at the museum of the Zoological Society of London in 1827. Gould's position brought him into contact with the country's leading naturalists, and also meant that he was often the first to see new collections of birds given to the Society. In 1830 a collection of birds arrived from the Himalayas, many not previously described. Gould published these birds in A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830-1832). The text was by Nicholas Aylward Vigors, and the illustrations were lithographed by Gould's wife Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Coxen of Kent. This work was followed by four more in the next seven years including Birds of Europe in five volumes - completed in 1837, with the text written by Gould himself, edited by his clerk Edwin Prince. Some of the illustrations were made by Edward Lear as part of his Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae in 1832. Lear however was in financial difficulty, and he sold the entire set of lithographs to Gould. The books were published in a very large size, imperial folio, with magnificent coloured plates. Eventually 41 of these volumes were published with about 3000 plates. They appeared in parts at £3 3s. a number, subscribed for in advance, and in spite of the heavy expense of preparing the plates, Gould succeeded in making his ventures pay and in realizing a fortune. In 1838 he and his wife moved to Australia to work on the Birds of Australia and shortly after his return to England, his wife died in 1841. When Charles Darwin presented his mammal and bird specimens collected during the second voyage of HMS Beagle to the Geological Society of London at their meeting on 4 January 1837, the bird specimens were given to Gould for identification. He set aside his paying work and at the next meeting on 10 January reported that birds from the Galápagos Islands, which Darwin had thought were blackbirds, "gross-bills" and finches were in fact "a series of ground Finches which are so peculiar" as to form "an entirely new group, containing 12 species." This story made the newspapers. In March, Darwin met Gould again, learning that his Galápagos "wren" was another species of finch and the mockingbirds he had labeled by island were separate species rather than just varieties, with relatives on the South American mainland. Subsequently Gould advised that the smaller southern Rhea specimen that had been rescued from a Christmas dinner...

'Race a laine douce, du Pays de Galles' (Soft-woolled sheep of Wales) Lithograph with original hand-colouring by Hermann Eichens (1813-1886) from a drawing by W. Nicholson after a ...

'Ancienne Race de Wiltshire (The Old Wiltshire Breed)' Lithograph with original hand-colouring by Hermann Eichens (1813-1886) from a drawing by W. Nicholson after a painting by Wil...

Chromolithograph of Ducks, laid on to contemporary card (as published). [Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1878]. Alexander Pope, Jr., was an American sculptor and painter. He’s kn...

'Race des montagnes du Wicklow' (The Breed of the Wicklow Mountains) Lithograph with original hand-colouring by Hermann Eichens (1813-1886) from a drawing by W. Nicholson after a p...

'Ancienne Race de Norfolk (The Old Norfolk Breed) ' Lithograph with original hand-colouring by Hermann Eichens (1813-1886) from a drawing by W. Nicholson after a painting by Willia...