How to Authenticate an Antique John Gould Bird Print

Written by Iris

Few names in nineteenth-century natural history carry the same weight as John Gould. His birds are extraordinary. They have hung on the walls of museums, libraries, and collectors' studies for nearly two centuries, and they still take my breath away every time a new piece passes through our collection.

If you are reading this, you are probably thinking about adding a Gould to your wall, or perhaps you already have one and you would like to be sure of what you own. Either way, you have come to the right place.

I have spent more than twenty-five years handling antique prints, and Gould pieces are among the most rewarding and, occasionally, the most misunderstood. Reproductions of Gould's birds are everywhere. The good ones are quite beautiful. The trouble is, some are sold as originals, and that is a problem.

Let me walk you through how to tell the difference.

A Quick Word on Who John Gould Was

John Gould (1804 to 1881) was an English ornithologist and bird artist who produced some of the most beautiful illustrated books of the nineteenth century. His most famous works include The Birds of Australia, The Birds of Great Britain, The Birds of Asia, and A Monograph of the Trochilidae (the hummingbirds).

Gould did not draw most of the plates himself. He directed the work, and the actual illustration was done by a team of artists, most notably his wife Elizabeth Gould, Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, William Hart, and Joseph Wolf. The prints were produced as hand-coloured lithographs, and the colouring was famously done in his Soho workshop by a small group of dedicated artists, often women, working from his specimens.

Gould's name is on the title page. The story is in every plate.

Why Authentication Matters with Gould

Original Gould prints from the nineteenth century are valuable. They are also reproduced more than almost any other antique bird print. A high-quality digital reproduction on archival paper can look astonishingly close to the real thing at first glance.

For a collector, the difference between an original 1840s hand-coloured lithograph and a 1990s digital reproduction is enormous. Both can be beautiful. Only one carries the history, the provenance, and the investment value of an original.

So, how do you tell?

Five Ways to Authenticate a John Gould Bird Print

1. Look at the Paper

This is the first thing I check. An original Gould print is on handmade laid paper. Hold it to the light and you will see fine parallel lines running across the sheet, called laid lines, and thicker lines crossing them at right angles, called chain lines. You may also find a watermark, often the maker's name (Whatman is common for Gould prints).

Modern reproductions are usually printed on machine-made paper, which is uniform when held to the light. If the paper looks smooth, bright white, and modern, the print is almost certainly a reproduction.

2. Examine the Printing Technique

Original Gould prints are lithographs. Under a 10x loupe or magnifying glass, you should see a delicate grain in the dark areas of the image, almost like the texture of a soft pencil drawing pressed onto paper. The lines have a slightly furred edge, not the crisp dot pattern of modern offset printing.

Modern photographic reproductions, by contrast, show a regular dot pattern (the rosette pattern of CMYK printing) or a uniform digital print with very crisp edges. The presence of a dot pattern under magnification is one of the clearest signs that a print is a reproduction.

3. Study the Hand-Colouring

Gould's prints were hand-coloured by his workshop. Look closely at the coloured areas:

• Brush strokes should be visible, especially in the body of the bird.
• Watercolour pigments often have a slight sheen of gum arabic, particularly in areas of strong colour (the reds, blues, and blacks).
• Edges of coloured areas are not perfectly registered with the printed outline. A real human painted these, and the colour will sometimes drift just outside the line.

Modern reproductions have flat, perfectly registered colour with no variation, no brush strokes, and no gum arabic shine.

4. Check the Plate Mark and Margins

Lithographs do not always have a deep impressed plate mark like engravings, but they do have characteristic margins. The image typically sits within generous untrimmed paper margins, often with the title of the bird printed below in the same period typography. Look for slight signs of age in the margins: light foxing (small brown spots), gentle paper toning, occasional creases from being bound into the original folio.

A reproduction will often have artificially "aged" margins or, more frequently, sharp clean margins on stark white paper. Genuine age looks gentle and uneven. Artificial age looks consistent.

5. Look for Edition Information

Original Gould plates were published in folio editions over many years. There is usually publication information at the bottom of the plate: the publisher, the year of publication, the names of the artist and lithographer (such as "Drawn from nature on stone by H.C. Richter" and "Printed by Walter and Cohn" or similar).

Reproductions sometimes omit this information, or include it but in different typography. If the publication line is missing entirely, be cautious.

A Note on Reproductions

I want to be clear about something. Reproductions are not bad. A good-quality reproduction of a Gould bird, framed beautifully, can be a wonderful piece of art for the right wall. The William Morris and botanical reproductions in our collection sell well to interior designers and decorators who love the look and want the story without the price tag of an original.

The trouble is only when a reproduction is sold as something it is not. That is what every collector should be on guard against.

At Antiquarian Print Shop, every reproduction we offer is clearly labelled as a reproduction. Every original is researched, dated, and described with technique, paper size, print size, and condition. If we are not sure about something, we say so plainly. Twenty-five years of handling these prints has taught me that honest sourcing is the only sustainable way to be in this trade.

How We Authenticate at Antiquarian Print Shop

Every Gould print that enters our catalogue passes through the same process. I examine the paper, the printing technique, the hand-colouring, the plate, the margins, and the publication information. I check the piece against known reference works (Gould's published bibliographies, Sauer's catalogue of his work, museum and library holdings). I document what I find, and that documentation lives on the product page for every collector to read before they buy.

If you have a Gould print of your own and you are not sure what you have, I am always happy to take a look. Send a photograph through to iris@antiquarianprintshop.com with the front and back of the print and any details you can see in the margins. I cannot give an absolute authentication from a photograph, but I can usually give you a strong indication, and point you to a specialist if a more formal opinion is needed.

The Pleasure of a Real Gould

There is nothing quite like a real Gould bird hanging on the wall. The hand-colouring catches the light in a way reproductions never do. The paper has a texture you can almost feel from across the room. And the story, the lineage from Gould's workshop in Soho all those years ago to your study today, is something only the real thing can carry.

If you are ready to begin (or continue) the hunt, take a look at our John Gould Bird Collection. You will find pieces from The Birds of Great Britain, The Birds of Australia, and a handful from his hummingbird monograph, all carefully selected, fully described, and authenticated through hundreds of hours of research.

And if you have a question about a particular piece, please write to me. There is nothing I love more than talking about Gould.

Happy browsing!

Iris