John
Gould (1804-1881) was a British ornithologist, artist and successful
businessman. Best known for his extensive monograph on birds and well
documented association with Charles Darwin. In 1838 he sailed to Australia to study birds and be the first to produce a major work on the subject.
The original John Gould publication of the book The Birds of Australia: in 7 Volumes was produced during 1840 – 1848. Contained within these volumes are 681 drawings of native Australian Bird species. Only 250 of these original issues were ever produced using lithograph printing techniques. Complete sets of these original volumes are highly collectible and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars and the individual prints contained within are highly sought after when separated from the books.
Subsequently a facsimile reprint using a laser printing technique under exclusive B.M. (N.H.) licence from an original copy held in the Libraries of The British Museum (Natural History) was printed by Hill House publishers 1989 – 1994. This reprint has been limited to 500 copies to be distributed worldwide.
The Pink Cockatoo bird print now available to this eBay listing has been extracted from one of these 500 books. It is now approximately 25 years since reproduction and these prints are becoming more and more desirable to collectors of fine art work. The marks of authenticity are identifiable by the number at the top left hand corner of the print and the Official British Museum Stamp in red on the reverse side of the print. The print measures 535mm x 370mm approximately.