A Gould Hummingbird — Antique Botanical Print

The Story in the Margin

This plate is drawn from John Gould's celebrated A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Hummingbirds, issued in parts between 1849 and 1861 and illustrated with hundreds of hand-coloured lithographs depicting hummingbird species from across the Americas. Gould was so captivated by hummingbirds that he amassed a personal collection of several thousand skins and displayed them to enormous crowds at London's Great Exhibition in 1851, despite not seeing a living hummingbird in the wild until a trip to the United States in 1857. Produced by skilled lithographers working from his specimens and sketches, Gould's hummingbird plates set the standard for scientific bird illustration in Victorian England and remain prized for their jewel-like rendering of iridescent colour.

Materials & origin

• Material: 200 gsm gallery-grade, acid-free fine-art paper (FSC-certified).
• Print: Archival giclée, 12-colour printing, smooth matte finish for glare-free display.
• Artwork: Restored from a public-domain original; colour and detail digitally cleaned for large-format print.
• Origin: Made on demand and shipped from the print hub nearest you, cutting transit and waste.
• Framing: Sold unframed; ships rolled in a protective tube.