The Mammals of Australia (complete set)

London : printed by Richard and John E. Taylor for the author, [1845] – 1863. Three volumes, imperial folio, finely bound by H. Stamper in full green crushed morocco over boards (binder’s stamp to verso of each front free endpaper), elaborate gilt panels and rules, spine in compartments with raised bands, contrasting morocco title labels lettered and tooled in gilt (bindings with some light edge rubbing and scuffs, but a solid and handsome set); gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers (the blank verso with offsetting), Vol. I : pp. [6 – title, verso blank, dedication to Prince Albert, verso blank, the death notice for Prince Albert on a separate sheet and not on the verso of the dedication as mentioned in Wantrup, verso blank]; [i-ii – List of Subscribers]; [iii-iv – General Index]; [vii] – ix, Preface; blank; [xi] – xl, Introduction; [2 – list of plates]; 60 hand-coloured lithographs by John Gould and Henry Constantine Richter, printed by Hullmandel & Walton, each with guard sheet and accompanying leaf of letterpress text (one text leaf with a light vertical crease); Vol. II : pp. [4 – title, verso blank, list of plates, verso blank]; 60 hand-coloured lithographs, each with guard sheet and accompanying leaf of letterpress text; Vol. III : pp. pp. [4 – title, verso blank, list of plates, verso blank]; 52 hand-coloured lithographs, each with guard sheet and accompanying leaf of letterpress text; the third volume bound with blank sheets at rear to bulk out the binding and make the three volumes uniform in size; occasional light spots of foxing, a magnificent set.

 “It was not until I arrived in the country, and found myself surrounded by objects as strange as if I had been transported to another planet, that I conceived the idea of devoting a portion of my attention to the mammalian class of its extraordinary fauna” (the preface).

“John Gould’s three-volume folio of Australian mammals is one of the best of all Gould’s folios and the most engaging of all colour plate Australian natural history books, with some of the finest depictions of mammals ever produced” (Wantrup 2023, I, p. 520)

The lithographs were drawn by Henry Constantine Richter, and printed by Hullmandel & Walton, after original drawings and watercolours made in Australia by Gould and his wife Elizabeth (who died in 1841 and is uncredited in the publication).

Provenance:

Dymock’s Book Arcade, Sydney, their early twentieth century bookseller’s labels to front pastedowns

private collection, Western Australia

References:

Wantrup (2023) 290; Ferguson 10032; Nissen ZBI 1661; Sauer 14; Wood, p.365