Botany

Nuremberg:: Trew, Christoph Jakob and Wirsing, A.L.,, 1750-86.. first. Fine with original hand-coloring. A Fine original hand-colored copperplate engraving. Folio (12.5/8 x 19.25 inches, 32.05 x 48.89 cm). Presented matted in an Ivory rag mat with gilt line decoration. Sized to 18.5 x 24.5 inches, 46.99 x 62.23 cm). One of the rarest, and most elusive, of all botanical works. As stated in Gordon Dunthorne's Flower and Fruit Prints of the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries, London. 1938: Hortus Nitidissimis is one of the finest records of the cultivated flowers of the period, containing full-sized coloured of the figures. This is the showiest of the Florilegia; garden and florist's flowers painted for their beauty opposed to their scientific appeal. Many of the botanicals were rendered and appropriately credited to Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-70). Ehret's contribution to the art of botanical illustration is so instrumental, that in his well-referenced and essential tome… Read More

Nuremberg:: Trew, Christoph Jakob and Wirsing, A.L.,, 1750-86.. first. Fine with original hand-coloring. A Fine original hand-colored copperplate engraving. Folio (12.5/8 x 19.25 inches, 32.05 x 48.89 cm). Presented matted in an Ivory rag mat with gilt line decoration. Sized to 18.5 x 24.5 inches, 46.99 x 62.23 cm). One of the rarest, and most elusive, of all botanical works. As stated in Gordon Dunthorne's Flower and Fruit Prints of the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries, London. 1938: Hortus Nitidissimis is one of the finest records of the cultivated flowers of the period, containing full-sized coloured of the figures. This is the showiest of the Florilegia; garden and florist's flowers painted for their beauty opposed to their scientific appeal. Many of the botanicals were rendered and appropriately credited to Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-70). Ehret's contribution to the art of botanical illustration is so instrumental, that in his well-referenced and essential tome… Read More

London:: John Van Voorst,, 1863.. Second revised. A Near Fine Copy. Octavo ( 6.5 x 9.5 inches). Green embossed publisher's cloth with gilt emblem on cover and lettering on spine. Head and foot of spine softened, corners lightly frayed. AEG. Tidy owner's signature and location dated 1868 on prelim. A fine reissue of Sowerby's classic work on British Wild Flowers, to which is now added a supplement containing 180 figures of lately discovered flowering plants by John W. Salter, ALS, FGS and the Ferns, Horsetails and Club-mosses by John E. Sowerby. Pp. xlix, 186, with frontispiece and 86 hand-colored steel engraved plates representing 1780 botanical specimens in total. The richly colored frontispiece is a fine bouquet of Wild Flowers in the style of Jane Webb Loudon. The accompanying plates are vibrant and clear throughout, not pale as often the case with this type of wild flower compendium. A fine work by one of the Sowerby family, major contributors to the illustration and documentation… Read More

Portland, Maine:: Rebecca Goodale,, 2003.. Edition of 5. 9.5 x 12 x 1"; 13 leaves. Handcolored silkscreen prints on handmade paper (including pastedowns). Accordion construction. Green silk cloth-covered boards with illustrated handmade paper on front board. In matching green cloth-covered slipcase. Goodale uses the accordion book structure for bringing attention to these seven ferns on Maine's Threatened & Endangered list. She lists the individual species' names under the name of the genus Woodsia. Her vigorous painting strokes and bold design seem to bring the page alive with ferns.

Albany: New York Department of Agriculture, 1919. Large quarto ( x cm.), 686 pages. FIRST EDITION. Includes information on nearly 2900 edible foods, by far the largest and most complete study of its kind to the date of its publication. Very good in green cloth.

London: John and Arthur Arch, Cornhill. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green. Paternoster Row. & C Loddiges & Sons, Hackney, 1824 A scarce complete volume of Loddiges' Botanical Cabinet, with 100 hand coloured plates engraved by George Cooke. Conrad Loddiges founded a plant nursery business in Hackney and the family became famous for exotic and rare plants. The mauve rhododendron that has become common in Great Britain today was imported by Conrad Loddiges. The Botanical Cabinet showcases the rare plants that they imported and grew. This volume is volume X, dated 1824. In contemporary half leather binding with marbled boards and endpapers. Top page edges gilt. The spine has gilt compartments and elaborate gilt tooling. There are title and volume labels. Internally there is a decorative title page and then a series of plates, each followed by a brief description on a separate page. There are 100 plates of which 9 are folding. There is an index at the rear. The binding is in very… Read More

Portland, Maine:: Rebecca Goodale,, 2016.. Edition of 5. 7 x 9.25"; 20 pages. Pop-ups. Flutter book construction. Monotype silkscreen prints and monotype gelatin plate prints. Handcut and handcolored with ink and colored pencil. Handwritten text. Cloth bound flat-backed case with an onlay beneath the cloth on the front cover. Rebecca Goodale: "After years of walking in the woods, studying, and eating mushrooms, this is my first book about some of the most delicious mushrooms in my town."

Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1908. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY CONTRIBUTOR William Phipps Blake at front end page - "Professor Joseph Hyde Pratt, Chapel Hill, N.C. with compliments of W.P. Blake (?) Oct. 28, 1908 (Leafs 45)". Phipps contribution starts at p. 45, titled "Geological Sketch of the Region of Tucson, Arizona". Phipps (1826-1910) was the Territorial Geologist of Arizona, a noted mining consultant and educator who started the first school of mines in the Far West in 1864. Professor Joseph Hyde Pratt (1870-1942) was a prominent North Carolina geologist, conservationist, and state and civic leader. Near Fine, bound in dark blue cloth with gilt lettering at spine, 111 pages, illustrated with numerous black and white photographs, 3 fold-out maps, scattered light toning and light rubbing to boards, Pratt's ownership signature front paste down. SCARCE in hardcover, a great geology ASSOCIATION COPY.. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY CONTRIBUTOR. First Edition.… Read More

Rare complete copy of Keika Hasegawa's Keika Hyakugiku (100 chrysanthemums by Keika)(The British Museum only has Volumes 1 and 2, the Smithsonian only 2 and 3.)75 colour woodblock prints (all published), including eight double-page, from this seminal book on the cultivation of chrysanthemums. Volumes 1 and 2 published in July 1893 and Volume 3 published in December 1903. Chrysanthemum cultivation came to Japan from China in the 8th century and the flower was later adopted as the Emperor's crest. Over the centuries, extraordinary hybrids of elegant shapes and vibrant colours were produced, many of which are recorded in this book.Little is known about the artist Keika Hasegawa. (The name Keika is usually a woman's name.) Active in the final years of the 19th century, he also produced books of patterns for kimono and washi paper such as Biko Zukan (Art Book) 1894, and Kyoka Zuan (Patterns of Kyoto), 1897. Original wraps are grubby and worn, interior slightly browned and edges worn. A few prints with… Read More

Very good copy of the first volume of Andrews' magnus opus, with 72 stunning botanical plates.Title page dated 1797, but preface dated 1799. Complete with 72 copperplates drawn, engraved, published and hand-coloured by Henry Andrews himself, printed in black or green ink and heightened with gum arabic.Volume 1 only in a series of 10 volumes with 664 plates published from 1797 to 1814 as the first serious rival to William Curtis' Botanical Magazine. Andrews stated that it was his intent to introduce new and rare plants "as have not hitherto appeared in any similar publication." This volume has herbs and shrubs from Mexico, South America, the West Indies, South Africa, Japan, Madeira, and many other exotic locations.The distinctive plates are dynamic and elegant, with brilliant and vibrant hand-colour by Andrews himself. Printed in green ink, many look like water-colour paintings rather than engravings. The image fills the page, with some trimmed right up to the plate mark.With botanical descriptions in… Read More

Very good set of this fine British flora, the first to rival James Sowerby's English Botany from 1791. Complete with 509 hand-coloured copperplates engraved by Charles Mathews after botanical illustrations by Mathews, Isaac Russel (an Oxford glass painter) and William Alfred Delamotte. The plates were reputedly hand-coloured by Baxter's daughters and daughter-in-law. George Claridge Druce in The Flora of Berkshire, 1897, writes, "The plates of this work, although of unequal merit, are in many cases very excellent and possess a special value, because each figure is drawn from an individual plant, the locality or origin of which is usually stated."First issued in parts from 1832, and later in book form from 1834. This set states Second Edition, 1834, on the title page of Vol. I, but all other volumes are 1st edition: Vol. II 1835, Vol. III 1837, Vol. IV 1839, Vol. V 1840, and Vol. VI 1843. Six volumes bound in 3.William Baxter (1787-1871), was a British botanist, author, curator and head gardener of the… Read More

Very good set of this important French work with over 400 elegant botanicals by Edouard Maubert.
A comprehensive overview of plants and trees used for food, medicine, industry and ornament in the 19th century
Complete in 17 volumes with nine volumes of text and 8 volumes of plates.
Fine engravings by Oudet, Debray, Corbie, Lebrun, Lagesse, Pierre, and L. Noel after botanical illustrations by Edouard Maubert. The plates either showing the entire plant or tree along with details of fruits and seeds, or an elegant arrangement of fruits, flowers, leaves, roots.
The 411 engraved plates mounted on hinges, finely engraved and hand-coloured, presenting over 3,000 useful plants, garden flowers, fruits, trees, shrubs, mushrooms, etc.
The set is divided into five classes:
Traité de botanique générale (2 text volumes, 2 atlases with 53 and 50 plates of parts of flowers, roots, leaves, seeds, cells, plant biology, etc.)
Flore médicale, usuelle et industrielle (3 text volumes, 3 atlases with 50, 50 and 50… Read More

Very good complete copy of Hermann Köhler's celebrated German study of medicinal botanyWith 283 dynamic botanical chromolithographs mainly signed W.M. (Walther Otto Muller), with others by Carl Friedrich Schmidt and K. or E. Gunther. The botanical plates are justly famous for their attractive design, with all parts of the flower, leaf, branch, fruit and seed displayed over the entire plate.This monumental German herbal was written principally by Hermann Adolph Köhler, edited after his death by Gustav Pabst, and published by Franz Eugen Köhler from 1887-1890. The third volume was published later in 1898 with the subtitle Latest medicinal plants and confusions (Neueste Medizinalpflanzen und Verwechslungen), revised by Max Vogtherr and M. Gürke, curators at the Botanical Museum in Berlin.With an advert for the fourth volume with another 100 plates (never published).Hermann Adolph Köhler (1834-1879) was a Prussian German physician and chemist. He was awarded the Iron Cross for his work as a military… Read More

Good copy of a herbal, possibly German from the late 16th centuryLacks title page, first 24 pages of text, first two pages of Latin index, pages 49-64, 321-328 and 385~391.With over 620 woodblock engravings of medical plants, herbs, fruits and vegetables in contemporary hand-colour. No text, but names of plants in Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian and German at the top of the plate. Index in Latin (missing A to D, starts with Eruum), Italian, French, Spanish and German.Perhaps a later pirate copy of Adam Lonicer's Herbarum, arborum, fruticum, frumentorum ac leguminum, Egenolph, Frankfurt, 1546. Lonicer (1528-1586) married printer Christian Egenolph's daughter and became a partner in the firm. From 1551, the firm published herbals under Lonicer's name.Early editions had the plant names printed Latin in Roman and Italic type, and German in Schwabacher type. This copy has up to six plant names in Latin, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Greek.Annotated with ink manuscript captions in English by… Read More

Description:Description: A very early detailed exposition of Genetic Theory. Includes translations of Mendel's papers at the end of the book.I believe this is a first edition, first printing, 1909. See photo - verso of tittle page states "Printed by John Clay at the University Press" only.Text block solid, inside hinges intact, with minimal foxing and all colour plates/tissue protectors intact. Cracking of the cover cloth at front and back hinge. Back cover has bottom corner bent and cracked. Creasing on bottom right of front cover. See my photographs. A clean copy - no owners names, stamps etc. throughout. Minimal foxing. Bateson was one of the rediscoverers of Mendel's neglected publications in 1900. He became an advocate for Mendelism in Britian. Today, it is clear that there is no conflict between the ideas of Mendel and those of Darwin. However, Bateson was not a "Darwinian" in that he did not believe in gradual change over eons was the true story of evolution. He was convinced that, if… Read More