Delicately hand coloured original lithographic plate from Gould's most famous work, Birds of Australia, one of the great natural history publications of all time.

Delicately hand coloured original lithographic plate from Gould's most famous work, Birds of Australia, one of the great natural history publications of all time.

Known more commonly today as the Orange Chat, Epthianura Aurifronis was noted by Gould at the time to be of great rarity. Taken from Gould's description "This... must be regarded as a bird of the greatest rarity... I wish to direct the attention of residents in New South Wales (to)... Gammon Plains in which it was seen by Lieut. Breton".

As both a dedicated ornithologist and entrepreneurial publisher, Gould's lasting contribution to was his lavish series of colour plate folios. Indeed, his biographer Allan McEvey asserts that 'nothing can detract from this gargantuan achievement that ranks highly in the world's ornithology' (John Gould's Contribution to British Art, 1973).

Birds of Australia was one of Gould's most successful publishing endeavours. The series of plates was issued in a limited edition of 250 copies, after which the original lithographic stones were effaced to ensure no further copies could be printed. Of these, some 180 copies were sold by subscription, with the remainder offered as splendid bound volumes. Individual plates from the Birds of Australia are now both scarce and eagerly collected.