Bonhams’ sale of 500 natural history and zoological books and watercolors from a private collection on July 15 totalled £5.3 million.

A new world record price of £45,410 was achieved for a first edition of John Gould’s five-volume The Birds of Great Britain.

The only known copy of a fine series of mixed bouquets by Pierre-Joseph Redouté’s shared the sale’s top price of £182,650 with Jean Baptiste Audebert and Louis-Jean-Pierre Vieillot’s Oiseaux doré ou à reflet métalliques. The latter book had once belonged to the Duchesse de Berry and was one of only 12 copies or fewer printed in gold throughout.

Two lots sold for £171,650: A hand colored first Dutch edition of Maris Sibylle’s Der Rupsen Begin, Voedzel en Wonderbarre and John Gould’s first edition of The Birds of Australia, in eight volumes.