John Gould Fawn-Breasted Wood-Shrike (Restes Ceriniventris) New Guinea Bird Antique Print

Original hand coloured lithograph by William Matthew Hart (1830-1908) & John Gould (1804-1881) for Birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan Islands, including many species recently discovered in Australia.

Following Gould's death in 1881, Hart was employed by Dr R Bowdler-Sharpe to complete Gould's work. Hart's best work was on the final magnificent collection, the bright colours suiting his style of colour intensity.

Printed on Wove Paper, made from Flax & Hemp.  

Illustrates the male and female Fawn-breasted Wood-Shrikes, sitting on then edge of a cliff among a species of pink Aerides orchid clusters. They have an ideal viewing platform above the canopy of trees below. Both male and female appear of similar coloration, with gold breasts with taupe pronounced feather caps and wing casings.

Published London between 1875-1888.
Condition = Excellent
Page Size = 37cm x 55cm / 14.8 x 22 inch

 John Gould's Publishing Empire

Gould's publishing success involved many skills, and was therefore was labor intensive taking years to complete 21 titles. Of those some 15 were folios consisting of 49 volumes containing 3000 meticulously had coloured plates. He employed taxidermists, draughts-men, artists, lithographers, printers, & colorists, including type-setters for the descriptions. It was therefore necessary to incrementally issue the collections in "parts" to be bound as volumes as each was completed. The benefits for the bird collectors was that new species were being discovered during this process. The secret ingredient that bonded the famous firm of Gould & Co. was no so much the director’s charisma but the reliability of his pockets as he was a consummate entrepreneur. In 1870, 1062 individuals, institutions and libraries possessed one or more of his titles. He achieved this by remembering, “You should never spend fifteen shillings until you have got a sovereign”.