Hand Coloured Lithograph of Grey Wagtail in Winter Plumage by John Gould and Henry Richter from Birds of Great Britain, 1862-73

Original hand-coloured lithograph of the Grey Wagtail (Calobates Sulphurea) from John Gould‘s Birds of Great Britain, 1862-73, described by Mullens and Swann in 1917 as “the most sumptuous and costly of British bird books”. It is believed that Gould was especially proud of this work with 468 listed subscribers.

The lithograph is in excellent, bright condition with no foxing. Label to reverse for The Parker Gallery, 2 Albemarle Street, London, W1X 3HF (BADA, founded 1750).

John Gould (1804 –1881) has been described as "the greatest figure in bird illustration after Audubon" (University of Glasgow). He started his career as a taxidermist and in 1828 was appointed animal preserver at the museum of the newly created Zoological Society of London. George IV commissioned him to stuff the first giraffe in Britain, which had been presented to him by the Viceroy of Egypt.

When Charles Darwin presented his mammal and bird specimens collected during the second voyage of HMS Beagle to the Zoological Society of London on 4 January 1837, the bird specimens were given to Gould for identification. Gould reported that birds from the Galápagos Islands which Darwin had thought were blackbirds, "gross-bills" and finches were in fact "a series of ground Finches which are so peculiar" as to form "an entirely new group, containing 12 species." His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin‘s finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin‘s theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould‘s work is referenced in Charles Darwin‘s book, On the Origin of Species.