19th-Century John Gould Kingfisher Bird Lithograph | Original Hand-Colored Natural History Print

Details

Description

An original hand-colored lithograph of the common kingfisher from John Gould’s The Birds of Great Britain, published between 1862 and … Read more An original hand-colored lithograph of the common kingfisher from John Gould’s The Birds of Great Britain, published between 1862 and 1873. The vivid coloring of this unmistakable British bird is complemented by a coordinating archival mat, protected behind real glass, and finished in a warm mahogany-toned frame.

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DETAILS

• Publication || The Birds of Great Britain
• Artist || John Gould
• Illustrator || William Hart
• Title || Alcedo Ispida
• Subject || Common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
• Medium || Original hand-colored lithograph
• Presentation || Archival matting, warm mahogany-toned frame, and real glass; 16 x 20 in. overall

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ABOUT THE WORK

John Gould published The Birds of Great Britain himself in 25 parts between 1862 and 1873, ultimately producing only about 750 complete sets. Each set contained 367 large lithographs, individually colored by hand under Gould’s direction, with many finished with touches of gum arabic to give the color added depth and luminosity.

The scale of the process was remarkable: across the full edition, nearly 280,000 individual illustrations were finished by hand. The combination of ambitious scale, close observation, and extraordinarily labor-intensive production made The Birds of Great Britain one of the defining British ornithological works of the Victorian period. See less