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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
David Barnett

‘Exceptional’: rare books of illustrations from Darwin’s ‘bird man’ on sale for £2m

One of John Gould’s commissions: a hand-colored lithograph by Henry Constantine Richter of a Lady Amherst’s pheasant.
One of John Gould’s commissions: a hand-colored lithograph by Henry Constantine Richter of a Lady Amherst’s pheasant. Photograph: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

John Gould was one of the most sought-after taxidermists in 19th-century London, commissioned by King George IV to stuff the first giraffe to arrive in England.

But Gould’s lasting legacy is birds. He travelled the world documenting and cataloguing as many avian species as he could find, many of them never seen before, earning him the nickname the Bird Man and the appointment as official “bird stuffer” to the Zoological Society.

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