This edition of Sharpe's Birds of Paradise has been reproduced from a copy of the first edition at The John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, with digital photography by James Robinson and reprographics by Dot Gradations, Wickford, Essex.It has been printed by Appl, Wemding, Germany, on Modigliani paper. The binding by Beltz fine books, Bad Langensalza, Germany, is in Nigerian goatskin leather and canvas sides blocked with a design by Neil Gower.The edition is limited to one thousand numbered copies for sale to members of The Folio Society, and twenty lettered copies which are not for sale.The Folio Society is proud to reproduce, for the first time, all 79 plates of Sharpe’s Birds of Paradise in book form at their actual size, with a foreword by David Attenborough. At the time when this remarkable book was first produced, lithographic plate reproduction had reached its peak of subtlety and precision. The illustrations showed these fabulous birds in radiant colour and exquisite detail. With this edition, you now have the opportunity to own an extraordinary work of natural history.At the end of the 19th century, Richard Bowdler Sharpe published his Monograph of the Paradiseidae and Ptilonorhynchidae. Dedicated entirely to birds of paradise and bower-birds, it is one of the greatest bird books and, for many, the most beautiful ever created.The illustrations showed these fabulous birds in radiant colour and exquisite detail. Their beauty is breathtaking – from the Great Sicklebilled Bird of Paradise, with its shimmering plumage and long, sweeping tail feathers, to the Emperor Bird of Paradise with its foamy white and golden plumage. The book is an ornithological and artistic triumph.