156 watercolours of flowers, plants, and fruits.

A truly stunning collection of over 150 original eighteenth-century botanical watercolours, attributed to the noted Dutch botanical artist Pieter van Loo (1731–1784).

Born at Haarlem in the Netherlands, Loo spent most of his life in his native city where he was registered with the Painters Guild as a 'painter of flowers'. He is perhaps best known for his watercolours of hyacinths, a collection of which – entitled 'Choix de Jacintes' and comprising thirteen images by Loo and Cornelis van Noorde painted between 1765 and 1769 – is preserved at the Oak Spring Garden Library in Virginia.

The vibrantly coloured and beautifully executed images here run in more or less alphabetical order from 'l'Asther à fleur blanche' to 'la Gimauve' in volume 1, and from 'Hépatique' to 'Verveine' in volume 2, each set neatly within a ruled frame, through which they occasionally burst – as in the case of 'Chelidoine de l'Amerique' for example – with considerable exuberance.

Of particular note in the first volume are the artist's depictions of anemone, cornflower, Gros Blanquet pear, sunflower, cyclamen, cotton, sugarcane, honeysuckle, pomegranate, and various geraniums. The second volume includes especially beautiful renderings of hibiscus, jasmines, irises, mallow leaves, an orange branch, roses, rhubarb, euphorbia, and tomatoes.

Provenance:

1. From the library of Jérôme-Frédéric Bignon (1747–1784), who succeeded his father as royal librarian to Louis XV in 1770. Bignon was clearly interested in horticulture, adding an orangery to the château du Plessis-Piquet which he purchased in 1776. Sold at the Bignon sale of 8 January 1849, lot 547 ('Recueil de 156 planches représentant les principales plantes … dessinées et peintes avec le plus grand soin sur papier fort').

2. Late nineteenth-century or early twentieth-century collector's mark 'GL' (not in Lugt) to verso of front free endpapers.

3. Baron Laurent Meeûs (1872–1950), Belgian industrialist, bibliophile, and collector of Old Master Paintings, sometime President of the Friends of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, with his gilt morocco booklabel to the upper pastedown of the first volume.

4. Carleton Rubira Richmond (1887–1975), the Bostonian businessman, collector, and President of the American Antiquarian Society, with his armorial bookplate to the upper pastedowns.

5. Sotheby's, 30 October 1981, lot 74.