The states and printing history (1861–1864) of John Henry Gurney's A descriptive catalogue of the raptorial birds in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum

Abstract

The first and only part published of A descriptive catalogue of the raptorial birds in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum by John Henry Gurney (senior) is usually dated 1864. But a copy with a variant title-page dated 1861 exists, raising the question of whether there are two editions or issues. Typographical errors indicate that all copies, whatever dated, constitute a single impression from one type setting. All copies dated 1864 have a cancelled title-leaf. The copy dated 1861 is apparently unique, an accidental survival that escaped the cancellation; its title-page never appeared in commercially available copies. Printing of the whole book, on three batches of paper, was demonstrated by internal evidence to have been protracted over three years from 1861 to 1864. Therefore, there is only one edition, published in 1864, with the title-page in two states. This study demonstrates how differences between batches of printing-paper can facilitate recognition of cancelled conjugate pairs of leaves that would otherwise be undetectable unless a copy without the cancellation were found. Examination of the cloth types, spine titles, endpapers and various printed insertions, indicates that probably two different casings of the whole edition were carried out simultaneously, rather than consecutively, contrary to the usual practice of Victorian publishers. The surviving original manuscript suggests that the protracted printing resulted from indecision about some taxonomic and nomenclatural points; but complications in Gurney's private life probably also contributed. No further parts of the catalogue were published, probably because of Gurney's disastrous business problems between 1866 and 1869. The potential relevance of the book to avian nomenclature is appraised.