John Gould Birds New Guinea Manucodia comrii (Curl-crested Manucode) Antique Print Lithograph

Original hand-coloured lithograph designed (painted) & executed by William Matthew Hart printed on Flax & Hemp "wove" paper.

Published in John Gould (1804-1881), for Birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan Islands, including many species recently discovered in Australia.

Published London 1875-1888
Condition = Excellent
Page Size = 55 x 37 cm (22 x 14.8 inches)

This illustration features three Manucodes in a forest canopy, one with a red berry in its bill as they are have a diet of fruit. All have deep iridescent blue-black feathers with crown feathers curled and neck feathers crinkled, all tipped with iridescent yellowish-green with blue and purple sheen, the chest feathers are scolloped with dashes of black. The large specimen in the foreground faces left with an alert, red eye.

John Gould employed the finest lithographers of the day to create large hand-colored lithographs that are some of the finest bird illustrations ever done. Gould had an excellent eye for detail, and closely supervised the work of his lithographers. This collection of New Guinea Birds was his last great work entrusted to his good friend and asssociate Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909) to complete after his death in 1881. Sharpe was in charge of the bird collection at the British Museum where he was Assistant Keeper of the Department of Zoology at this time. As with his other dedicated species collections, he produced limited edition superbly hand coloured lithographs of 250 of each bird making the originals finite and collectable today.