Featured Gould hummingbird lithographic prints dating and conservation advice

Hi all .. first timer here. I picked up these two prints at a thrift store yesterday. Dimensions are 20" x 14" matted. Inscriptions (left and right) : J"Gould and H C Rechter, del et lith" and "Hullmandel and Walton, imp".
Online research suggests they are dated mid to late 1800s. In this website I found a thread saying there were two editions by "Hullmandel and Walton", so my first question is the about the vintage of these prints.
Both prints have bands of foxing and one print has several spots. Any advice to conserve these beautiful prints from further degradation is appreciated.

Thanks
Sandi

 

Hi Sandi,
Let me be the first to welcome you to the group. Before the pros step in, I will let you know that the more information you can provide, the easier it will be for others to help you. Things like showing the pieces in their entirety, taking closeups of the signatures and other descriptive text. Photographing the back of the piece/frame so a timeline might be established, and things like that.
You will hear a lot of suggestions and will get a generous amount of information and insight...so enjoy.

 

looks like u need to re mat them..

 

Thanks for the warm welcome flipper .. here are more photos attached. The birds are 'topaza pella' and 'topaza pyra' or crimson topaz and fiery topaz respectively. The latter print has broadly curved streak marks across it.
Back of the frame has some numbers .. i think it may have been done by the thrift store.

I'm ready to open them up and remat them but keep the original frame. Should i also keep the old mat just in case ?

Thanks
Sandi

 

I have the same one (J.Gould and H C Rechter, del et lith and Hullmandel and Walton, imp).....once I removed the mat I discovered at the center bottom it was a repro liho "PUBLISHED & COPYRIGHT 1946 BY I. B. FISCHER Co. NEW YORK CITY"

 

Hi Laura .. i opened one of the frames
today morning. Photos attached. Seems to me an original lithograph but please do let me know. But maybe not the original frame and mat. The top and bottom were held to the mat with what looked like acid free tape (they didn't have this tape in the 1880s did they?).
Also sharing a beautiful detail i caught while looking at it today .. the two hummingbirds are chasing prey .. a small flying insect.

 

Hi all .. I found a great online resource to help with dating John Gould's lithographs. His monographs are on archive.org (start with the Wiki link here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:John_Gould) .. and in vol 2, I was able to find the page on the Crimson Topaz. Inscriptions on the lith match my print. see below.


my next step is to get archival mat, backing and tape, cleaning the glass .. but keeping the frame it came in. Is there anything else I should be doing ?

thanks
-Sandi

 

Good for you! Someone else will have better ideas about preserving and protecting your treasures, but they are stunning. Good find!

 

Welcome to Antiquers, @Sandi8030 -- Thanks for sharing the prints here. They are some of my favorite types of prints.

Here are two earlier discussions in these forums about Gould lithographs:

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/two-j-gould-birds-lithographs.3117/

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/help-dating-gould-lithograph.2116/