Figures of the most Beautiful, Useful and Uncommon Plates Described in the Gardeners Dictionary, exhibited on Three Hundred Copper Plates, Accurately Engraven after Drawings taken from Nature. With the Characters of their Flowers and Seed-Vessels, Drawn when they were in their greatest Perfection. To which are added, their Descriptions, and an Account of the Classes to which they belong, according to Ray's, Tournefort's, and Linnaeus's Method of Classing them. In two volumes.
London: Printed for the Author, 1760. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #44887
First edition. Folio. Quarter new calf in contemporary style, raised bands, blind stamped compartments, black leather spine label, gilt title and ruling. New endpapers. vi, 200 pp., [4 pp. index]. a-a2, A-Fff2. Three hundred original hand-coloured plates (2 folding), after Georg Dionysius Ehret (16 plates), Miller, and others. The plates are signed: "R. Lancake delin." or "I. Miller delin et sculp," and T. Jefferys sculp." Spine and boards fine. Edges of text block are damp stained, with damp staining to margins (mostly top and outer margins, occasionally to lower margin and gutter). General foxing throughout commensurate with age, rust stain to p. 192. Paper repairs to title page and edges of index pages, and to pl. CCCXXII. A few short closed tears to lower margins, and one small open tear to fore edge of p. 57, text not affected. 1.25" tear to foot of p. 63 repaired at reverse with full strip of paper reinforcement. Small perforations to lower margin of pl. CXCIX and p. 141. Some plates have been misnumbered, but all are present and in the correct order per plant descriptions (plates XL, CLXXXIII, CCLXVII, CCLXVIII, CCLXXVIII). Offsetting to all plates from colouring, with additional offsetting to gutter of pl. CCXLI. Several plates have common names of plants hand-written (presumably by a previous owner) next to description, and the ink of one such notation has smudged. Red ink ownership inscription of W.H.C. Harrison of Hamilton, dated 1888. A lovely copy of a remarkable book by the leading British horticulturalist of the eighteenth century. Philip Miller, FRS (1691-1771), was a member of the Botanic Academy at Florence, and Gardener to the Companies of Apothecaries at the Chelsea Physic Garden (1722-1770). Founded in 1673, the Chelsea Physic Garden is the second oldest botanic garden in England and was used to grow plants for medicinal use. Miller obtained plants from all over the world, many of which he introduced and cultivated in England for the first time, and he sent the first long-strand cotton seeds to the Colony of Georgia. His Gardener's Dictionary was one of the most popular gardening books at the time and ran through eight editions between 1731 and 1768. Dunthorne 209; Great Flower Books p. 121; Henrey 1097; Hunt 566; Nissen 1378; Pritzel 6241; Stafleu TL2 6059; ESTC T59417.
Price (CAD): $16,000.00