Gould's Trogons FROM THE LIBRARY OF JOHN JAMES AUDUBON

FROM THE LIBRARY OF JOHN JAMES AUDUBON THE “MISSING LINK” BETWEEN THE GREAT BIRD-BOOK-MEN GOULD, John (1804–1881). A Monograph of the Trogonidæ, or Family of Trogons by J. Gould, F.L.S [&c.] London: Charles Hullmandel for the author, 1835 [1836] (part II); Richard and John E. Taylor for the author (part III), 1838. First edition. Here is what AI says it’s worth: $21,775. Cost: Christie’s London (14 November 2007), lot 220 - GBP 18,500. Parts II & III (of 3) in one. Broadsheet folio (21 3/8” x 14 ½”, 543mm x 367mm): 3 binder’s blanks, printed board to part II (part I, cancelled), 12 leaves; printed board to part III (without printed part numeration), 22 leaves, 3 binder’s blanks. 34 leaves, pp. [24] (text, blank for each of 12 plates), pp. [4] (title, blank, dedication, blank) i ii iii iv-vii (2pp. preface, 5pp. introduction) [33] (blank, “synopsis specierum,” blank, subscribers, blank, list of plates, blank; text, blank for each of 13 plates). With 25 lithographed plates (12 in part II, 13 in part III), hand-colored and heightened in gum arabic, by and after Gould, Henry Constantine Richter and William Matthew Hart. Bound in later (late-XIXc?) green morocco with a wide gilt border. On the spine, 6 pairs of raised bands. In the second panel, “AUDUBON’S/ GOULD” gilt. Title and numbers gilt to the third panel (“A/ MONOGRAPH/ OF THE/ TROGONIDA [sic]/ P.TS 2 & 3”). Triple gilt fillet to the edges of the boards. Yellow-coated end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Bound without pt. I (11 plates, 11 leaves text). A little scuffed, with some (repaired) skinning. Joints strengthened. The (publisher’s printed) boards soiled, particularly that of part III. General offsetting, with a little mild tanning. Tear (about 1”) to the lower edge of the penultimate plate of part II (Trogon collaris), not affecting the text. Bookplate of the Arcadian library to the front paste-down. A facsimile of a typed note signed and dated by Leonard B. Audubon (“L.B. Audubon/ 16.3.1950”) pasted to the recto of the first free end-paper with some associated cockling. Ink ownership signature of “J.J. Audubon/ March 21st 1836/ London” to the recto of the printed board of part II, with “I” of “Part I” cancelled and “2” in ink manuscript, and the price of “L 2.2.0” corrected in ink to “2.10.0” in ink manuscript and the “0” of “10” to “8” (i.e., “2.18.0”) in graphite; the bookplate of M.R. Audubon verso. A graphite marginalium in 7 lines (in Audubon’s hand) to the text facing the second plate of part II, the Trogon narina. Graphite numeration of the text leaves throughout. Graphite crosses (and checks) to the list of plates, with a tabulation (“34 species”) below. The printed board of part III without the printed part designation (“Part III” in ink manuscript) or a printed price (after the printed “L” (hashed in ink manuscript to create a “₤”) “2.18.0” in ink manuscript); the bookplate of M.R. Audubon verso. John Gould (1804–1881), inspired by Audubon’s Birds of America (1827–1838), conceived a massive project: to illustrate the world’s birds in a stately (if not elephantine) format. He eventually described the birds — if not quite exhaustively — of every continent but Africa. The “Gould plate” — an imperial folio (just under 2’ tall) with a more-or-less sketched background — came to define bird illustration for the final two-thirds of the XIXc. The major geographical works— Asia, Australia, Europe etc. — are multi-volume, but those focusing on a single genus or family tended to be smaller, as here. The Trogonidæ — from the Greek τρώγων (trôgôn, nibbling) in reference to the mode in which the birds make their nest — was issued in three parts between 1835 and 1838 and illustrated with 36 plates; 34 species were described, including twelve “new to science” (Anker). Gould would go on to revisit the work — “entirely rewritten and… illustrated with new plates” (Zimmer) — twenty years later, finishing the second edition a staggering forty years after beginning the first. The present set, to ignore for a moment its brightest distinction, is rare for its part-wrappers (here mounted on board) and for preserving, presumably, the plates’ order as issued; Sauer (ad loc.) notes an example in the Kenneth Spencer Library at the University of Kansas (Ellis Aves H135), and mentions the present item, publishing the order as transmitted by Tom Iredale, who had access to the volume in 1951 while still in the possession of Len (as he was known) Audubon in Australia; Iredale published the discovery as “Audubon in Australia” in Australian Zoologist vol. 11 (1951), pp. 318-321. John James Audubon (1785–1851) was the “bird man” before the title was bestowed on Gould. Indeed, he writes in his letters of his disdain for the younger generation who follow in his footsteps, as to Reverend Bachman 25 August 1834 from London: “You could not pass a Bookseller’s shop from the extreme “West end” to Wapping without seeing New books on Zoology in every window” (cited in Sauer, p. 193). Doubtless he was bitter, having gone to such awful trouble to sell subscriptions to the (vastly more expensive) Birds of America, and still having lost a great deal of money. Still, he was in active correspondence with and about his many successors, and in another letter to Bachman (20 April 1835) he explains how he came to own the present work: “I have agreed to exchange a copy of my Work with Mr. Gould, for his publications… and have by me, 13 Numbers of his Birds of Europe… his century of Hymealan [sic] Birds… and his monograph of Trogons” (in Sauer, p. 193). (It is worthy of note that Audubon should have given a set of his Birds, which was far more expensive!) This exchange allowed for Gould to list Audubon among the subscribers. Perhaps the date of the letter — 19 days after the issue of the first part — explains why the present item contains only the published material (including the preliminaries for the whole work, issued with the final part) of parts II and III. It seems that he never received the plates of part I, since he writes to Robert Havell, Jr. on the 25th of September 1835 asking “has Gould delivered you any numbers of his works for me?” (in Sauer, p. 193). The markings against the list of plates must surely be in his hand, and the plates of part I — although there is some discrepancy (see Sauer sub 4) in the part-issue — are all without indications that they have been received. Audubon’s marginalium, written against the text for Trogon narina (bound second in part II) “and the moment the young are excluded they take flight and follow their parents for a considerable period,” which he has underlined, is here reproduced in full: this beats my Little humming Bird Which cannot fly until They are one week old. Pray show this Paragraph To Charles Watterton “Esquire” of Walton Hall! Iredale explains: “There is a story behind this, as Neville Wood wrote: ‘The accuracy of these (Audubon’s) biographies has been doubted by our amiable friend, Mr. Waterton, of Walton Hall,’” (p. 319) perhaps the clearest sign of Audubon’s bitterness at his treatment by the British natural history establishment (of Gould in particular, Audubon writes in the 20 April 1835 letter cited above that he “has the advantage of the Zoological Society’s Museums… and the rest of the Scientific Gentry”). Because Audubon left his widow, Lucy, more or less penniless (she sold tours of their home, and eventually the corpus of the watercolors for the Birds to the New-York Historical Society), his library wasn’t preserved intact but passed down and outwards through his family. These volumes passed to Maria Rebecca Audubon (1843–1923), daughter of John Woodhouse Audubon (1812–1862), the younger of John James’s sons (skipping John Woodhouse, presumably, as he predeceased his mother). She edited her grandfather’s journals for publication, and perhaps had the present volume bound. Her bookplate depicts a male turkey (the first plate of the Birds of America), taken apparently from her father’s signet-ring. Maria Rebecca died without issue, and so the volume likely went with her brother, William Bakewell Audubon (1847–1932) to Australia — not unironically, as the incomplete set was given to Audubon by Gould just before going to Australia himself to prepare the Birds of Australia. The typed note (apparently a facsimile) pasted to the verso of the front free end-paper reads: The books were given to my great grandfather, John James Audubon, an American Ornithologist and Painter. Gould at that time was painting along similar lines, and they exchanged copies Of their works. These particular books were Sent out to Australia forty years ago, and Were held in the Audubon family until this Year when Mr. Hallstrom purchased the books From the great grandson of John James Audubon. (signed) L.B. Audubon 16.3.1950. The author of the note, Leonard “Len” Benjamin Audubon (1888–1951), was the sole son of William Bakewell Audubon, and a veteran of WWI who re-enlisted to serve in WW2. In addition to providing another link in the chain of provenance, it also confirms that he still had in his possession others (reported by Iredale) of the books given by Gould to Audubon; the cancelled first parts of the Birds of Australia, the rarissima avis of bird-books, are particularly tantalizing, though their location is unknown. The books were sold by Len Audubon to Sir Edward John Lees Hallstrom (1886–1970), a pioneer of refrigeration, who later in life became a prominent Sydney philanthropist particularly associated with the Taronga Zoo. Hallstrom bought other Auduboniana, including paintings, from Len Audubon, some 28 of which he gave to the National Gallery of Art in Washington via President Truman. Our volume, however, would return once again to Britain, joining the collection of The Arcadian Library in London. Initially founded as a private collection of the history of science, its focus is now more squarely on the interactions between the Christian West and the Muslim East. Consequently, the library sold off a portion of its natural history books at Christie’s London (14 November 2007), the present item being lot 220 of that sale. Anker 171; Ayer/Zimmer, p. 261; Fine Bird Books, p. 101; McGill/Wood p. 365; Nissen, IVB 381; Sauer, John Gould: The Bird Man 4.

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