Highly Decorative Set Six Unframed John Gould's Humming Birds

Wonderful set of six John Goulds Humming Birds ready to be framed at your choice. These are double sided so you can choose your best prints, the first six in photo and on the otherside are an alternative should you choose. Both front and Back shown here first 1-6 and back 7-12. These are 20th Century prints taken from the renowned original edition with the 1861 supplement, they are reprinted here so as to do justice not only to the beauty of the originals, but also to the first printers Hullmandel and Watson. Highly Decorative and of good size. In 1830, John Gould’s ambition crystallized after receiving a delivery of Himalayan bird skins at the Zoological Society, and he set to work publishing one of the first illustrated books on birds from the Indian subcontinent. He procured his friend and fellow Society member Nicholas Ayward Vigors to write the manuscript, and encouraged his wife Elizabeth to learn lithography in order to illustrate the work. Published in parts and completed in 1832, A Century of Birds of the Himalaya Mountains was the success that John Gould needed to establish his name in the ranks of ornithology. Almost immediately, Gould launched into his next project: a massive five-volume work on European birds. Published over five years from 1832-1837, The Birds of Europe contained 448 lithographic plates. During this period Gould also published A Monograph of Toucans, a 34-plate work completed in 1835. Illustrations for both works were produced by Elizabeth Gould and the artist and nonsense poet Edward Lear, who worked with the Goulds for several years at the beginning of their publication ventures.