Anser Ferus

• Work: Birds of Great Britain
• Description: Anser Ferus
• Date: 1862-1873
• Condition of Plate: Overall excellent
• Condition of Work: Overall excellent
• Paper Size: 15.0″ by 21.5″
• Image Size: 12.5″ by 18.5″

This print is a hand-colored lithograph from John Gould’s work, Birds of Great Britain, published in London between 1862 and 1873 by William Hart, H.C. Richter, and Josef Wolf from drawings by Hart, Richter, John Gould, and Josef Wolf. It is widely accepted that Gould sketched all 3000 of his plates. However, his wife, Lear, Wolf, Hart, and Richter did much of the remaining artistic work such as transferring these sketches to stone, hand-printing, and hand-coloring. Even during their original time of publication, his plates were very expensive. Birds of Great Britain was the fruit of Gould’s late middle age, produced after many years of describing foreign birds, and in it many family groups of birds, nests, eggs, chicks, and fledglings. The majority of the plates were drawn and lithographed by Richter, who arranged the birds in delightfully composed settings among British wild plants – honeysuckle, dogrose, gorse, flowering may, and ivy. At the time of publication, this work was highly sought after, and its popularity remains incredibly strong today.