ZOOLOGY - Ornithology - Gould, John. The birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan Islands, including many new species recently discovered in Australia. Completed after the author's death by R. Bowdler Sharpe. 5 vols. With 320 hand-coloured lithographed plates by and after J. Gould and W. Hart. London, Taylor & Francis for H. Sotheran, 1875-1888. large folio (55.5 × 37.5 cm). Roughly coloured green marocco bindings of the period with gilt-stamped spine titles, rich gilt spine, wide gilt-stamped cover borders, gilt inner edges and gilt edges (spine somewhat faded, edges partly rubbed, joints and bindings somewhat rubbed, a few scuff marks). Nissen IVB 373 - Anker 181 - Wood, p. 365 ("truly magnificent work"). - First edition. - Gould's last work, completed after his death in 1881 by his young assistant Sharpe. Contains magnificent - and as always exquisitely coloured - depictions of birds of paradise, parrots and newly discovered Australian bird species, the crowning glory of Gould's important contribution to the ornithology of Australia and Oceania. Gould was still able to work on the first 12 deliveries, the last 13 were made by Sharpe. The American W. Hart, who had designed drawings and colour orders for Gould for over 30 years, also contributed his magnificent art once again. - Like the preceding lot from British aristocratic ownership: bookplates of Lord Braybrooke in all volumes, in the first subsequent bookplate of the industrialist Evrard Bourlon de Rouvre. - Evenly slightly browned, hardly foxed, inside and outside in excellent condition.