Offered in this lot is a Vintage Gould & Hart Birds of Paradise Lithograph, circa 1890s. John Gould was without question the most prolific ornithological artist of the 19th Century, and the only one to rival John James Audubon in ambition and quality. In 1851, William Matthew Hart began work hand colouring the printed plates for Gould’s books. He and Gould shared a liking for intensely coloured birds, such as Gould’s popular display of mounted humming-birds at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Gould chose Hart to colour the pattern plates (models for the colourers to copy) and to execute the metallic highlights on the plates for A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-birds. By 1870, Hart had become Gould's chief artist and lithographer. After Gould died, Hart was employed by Richard Sharpe (Gould's assistant for many years) of the British Museum to produce illustrations for the completion of Gould's work and also to illustrate Sharpe's “A Monograph of the Paradiseidae” (Birds of Paradise), which was a continuation of Gould's "Birds of New Guinea". Hart is regarded as Gould's most proficient disciple and accomplished artist. This coloured lithograph is of a "Wallace's standardwing", a species of bird-of-paradise from eastern Indonesia. The bird was named by George Gray of the British Museum in honour of Alfred Wallace, British naturalist who was the first European to describe the bird. The coloured lithograph features three birds, two male and one female, perched on the branches of a fruit tree while the unadorned olive-brown female has a recently captured bug in its beak. The males have gloss violet and lilac coloured crowns and emerald green breast shields, both sexes featuring the striking two pairs of long white plumes coming out from the bend of the wing that can be raised or lowered at the birds' will. Females are smaller but have a longer tail than males. Reverse of frame features description page from Sharpe's “A Monograph of the Paradiseidae”. The lithograph has a nice overall condition. The colours are rich. Curling, age tanning and slight foxing is exhibited. The silver gilt matted wood frame exhibits scuffing on the edges, and the backing loose. Visible art measures 20.25"L x 14"W. The frame measures 29.5"L x 22.5"W x .75"D. The weight is 6 lbs 14oz.*