The Birds of New Guinea

Publication: The Birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan Islands

Author: John Gould (1804-1881). Completed after the author’s death by Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909) 

Print artist: William Hart

Published: London, 1875-1888

A complete set includes: 
1 title page
1 content page with all titles of the prints
all prints from one volume,  after hand-colored lithographs
Certificate of authenticity
Solander box

Volume I: 56 prints
Volume II: 58 prints
Volume III: 71 prints
Volume IV: 65 prints
Volume V: 75 prints

Casing: The complete set will be cased in an elegant handcrafted Solander Box covered in special linen embossed with golden lettering. You may choose your own color of the boxes and your own lettering.

Size of the prints: 15 x 22 inches (38 x 56 cm)

Durability: To ensure the durability, the giclée’s are printed on acid-free white etching paper (270 g/m²) with archival ink.

Quality: These prints were  photographed using the latest technology and reproduced at the original plate size. Printed in the highest possible resolution, these prints are virtually indistinguishable from the originals when glazed and framed.

Limited Edition: The edition will be limited to 50 sets, numbered 1/50 to 50/50, signed and stamped with a blind embossing.

Shipping and delivery: Read more about shipping and delivery in our FAQ .

Often referred to as the ‘father of bird study in Australia’, the English ornithologist John Gould created several esteemed collections of bird illustrations over his long career. He was the most prolific artist and publisher of ornithological subjects of all time.

In nineteenth century Europe Gould’s name was as well known as Audubon’s was in North America. But unlike Audubon, whose life’s work focused on one region, Gould traveled widely and employed other artists to help create his lavish hand-colored lithographic folios.

Nearly 3,000 lithographs were created during the span of his long ​career.

Although he was not the artist of the illustrations within his collections, it was Gould’s vision, dedication and supervision that led to the production of so many important works.

During his career he carefully documented birds and habitats in a range of environments from Australia to the Himalayas.

Born in Lyme Regis, West Dorset, Gould followed in his father’s footsteps to become a gardener. He secured a position as foreman in the Royal Gardens of Windsor in 1818.

Following his training at Windsor from 1818 to 1824, Gould later became a gardener at Ripley Castle in Yorkshire. Alongside his garden duties, Gould developed a passion for taxidermy – establishing his own taxidermist business in London.

Perhaps his most notable commission was for the stuffing of a pet giraffe for King George IV in 1826.

In 1827, Gould’s expertise gained him a role at the Zoological Society of London as the museum’s first curator and preserver. This position gave Gould access to several of Europe’s leading naturalists and he was often among the first to see the exotic new collections of birds given to the society.

Following the arrival of a collection of exotic bird skins from the Himalayas in 1830, Gould began the first of his monograph collections.

The book A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains, gained instant popularity and Gould followed this success with collections on the birds of Europe, Asia, Australia and New Guinea. He also created volumes dedicated to toucans, hummingbirds, birds-of-paradise and in a departure from feathered creatures; kangaroos.

Although he did not create the artwork for his collections himself, Gould worked with several established artists including his wife Elizabeth Gould, the poet and illustrator Edward Lear and German artist Joseph Wolf.

A notable point in Gould’s career came when he provided his expertise and guidance to Charles Darwin. In 1837, having returned from his second voyage aboard HMS Beagle, Darwin presented the mammal and bird specimens collected during his trip to the Zoological Society of London.

Gould was given the responsibility of identifying the birds which would later become known as ‘Darwin’s finches’. Gould’s knowledge provided vital information that helped Darwin develop his theory of evolution.

Over his lifetime, Gould created over 40 volumes of work, with over 3,000 colored plates, providing amazing insights into previously undiscovered species. He continued to work up until his death in 1881.

Gould conceived of this sweeping, lavish book as a complement to his unprecedented Birds of Asia.

The Birds of New Guinea was Gould’s last full-scale work, left incomplete on his death in 1881. Gould completed twelve of the twenty-five parts, and the task of finishing the project fell to Richard Bowdler Sharpe, a superbly qualified successor, who had been Gould’s colleague, assistant and friend.

One of Gould’s most exotic works, the five magnificent volumes of the Birds of New Guinea contain an extensive series of beautiful images of birds of paradise, bower birds, parrots, parakeets, cockatoos, kingfishers and hawk-owls. The birds of paradise were so strikingly beautiful that Sharpe later issued what amounted to a supplement of this work, focusing on the most colorful and exquisite subjects.

All of the 325 images are extraordinary for their color and artistry, interesting backdrops and animated compositions.

‘The halo of romance which for nearly a century has centred round New Guinea and its animals does not get dimmed as time speeds on, indeed it shines more brightly than ever’, wrote Sharpe in his introduction.