Bidding for John Gould's five-volume Victorian masterpiece failed tor reach pre-sale target figure

                                                     

Barn owls - as featured as depicted in Birds of Great Britain

                                                   

AN antiquarian bird book failed to set the  heather alight at a sale in Yorkshire.

Leyburn-based auction house Tennants had hoped John Gould's  five-volume The Birds of Great Britain, which was published over a period between 1862 and 1873, would sell for between £25,000 and £35,000.

But, at the sale on August 22, a bid of £20,000 was sufficient to clinch the sale.

The volumes contains no fewer than  367 fine hand-coloured lithographic plates by Gould himself and by other notable artists of the day, namely, H.C. Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Hart. 

In line with auction practice, the identities of neither the vendor nor the successful bidder have been revealed.

It was  thought the five volumes could fetch as much as £25,000

                                          

One of the plates - the Red-footed Falcon was known as the Orange-legged Hobby in Victorian times