Rare books from Florilegius

Rare volume on camellias from Kan'en Iwasaki's multi-volume botanical series Honzo Zufu (Iconographia Plantarum), originally compiled in 1828 and later published in 92 volumes. This volume, number 88 in the series, includes 10 pages of text and index of camellia species, and 47 color woodcuts of Camellia japonica varieties.Condition: Washi paper covers scuffed, but interior very clean, strong impressions of color plates with vivid color.Kan'en Iwasaki or Tsunemasa Iwasaki (1786–1842) was a Japanese botanist, zoologist and entomologist. His botanical studies were influenced by Johann Weinmann.

Complete set of 8 volumes with 640 handcolored engravings of French costumes from the 5th to 19th century, from the reign of Clovis I to Louis-Philippe.Illustrated with all 640 handcolored plates by Leopold Massard (1812-1889), grandson of the famous engraver Jean Massard. Plates finely coloured by hand, with many finished in gold. The illustrations copied from authentic images on statues, bas-reliefs, tomb effigies, paintings, murals, miniatures, drawings, and prints. Vol. 1, 187pp of text, 80 plates, 5th to 12th century; Vol. 2, 172pp, 80 plates 13th century; Vol 3, 217pp, 80 plates 14th century; Vol. 4, 202pp, 80 plates 15th century; Vol. 5, 256pp, 80 plates 16th century; Vol. 6, 202pp, 80 plates 17th century; Vol. 7, 214pp, 80 plates 18th century; and Vol. 8, 221pp, 80 plates, early 19th century. Subjects include many kings and queens, nobles, famous historical figures, knights, ladies, soldiers, peasants and workers.Condition: Cloth bindings discolored and starting to fray, sporadic foxing to… Read More

Complete set of this portable edition of Abbe Pluche's popular work on natural history for children, first published in 1732 and reprinted many times. First edition in 12mo, published in An 11 of the French Revolution (1803).With 61 fine copperplates by Jacques de Seve, including 2 frontispieces, 4 folding celestial maps (illustrator). Plates engraved by Duhamel, Letellier, Racine and Bigani. Vol. 1: 359pp, frontispiece, 5 plates of insects and shells; Vol. 2: 300pp, 5 plates of birds, animals, fish and plants; Vol. 3: 353pp, 7 plates of botany; Vol. 4: 336pp, 10 plates of botany and equipment; Vol 5, 347pp, 21 plates of fish, ships and shells; Vol. 6, 344pp, 3 plates of gems and astrology; Vol.7, 364pp, 8 plates (4 folding) of astrology; Vol. 8, 231pp, frontispiece.With half titles, tables of contents and list of illustrations in each volume. Elaborate gilt decorated spines with red title labels and volume numbers. Some scuffing to boards, but interior fresh and all plates present and free of… Read More

Six volumes only of this rare eight-volume set. (Vol. VIII was discontinued after only 4 issues with 12 plates.)With 352 hand-coloured engraved plates (of 360).Incomplete set of this rare handy pocket-sized edition of 18th century natural history describing many newly discovered species.Text and plates copied from accounts published by Count Buffon, George Edwards, George Shaw, James Bruce, Thomas Pennant, Maria Sybilla Merian and others. Includes the extinct dodo and sukotyro, endangered animals and birds (Siau Island tarsier, white rhinoceros, polar bear, Indian bustard, great green macaw, wild water buffalo, banded cotinga, Russian mink, African grey parrot). Also notable for the early images of plants and animals discovered in New South Wales, Australia (short-beaked echidna, kangaroo, black swan, eastern quoll, waratah, Banksia, etc.).Half contemporary calf with red and black morocco gilt spine labels, marbled boards scuffed, front board off Vol. VI. Some plates loose or trimmed, foxing and… 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

Complete set with 144 fine bird plates drawn, engraved and hand-coloured mostly by George Graves, (A few plates after Samuel Howitt and Sydenham Edwards, and engraved by Weddell and Warner.)A nice set of this study of British birds, with many songbirds, game birds, owls and hawks, divers, waders, and sea birds.Second edition of first two volumes (originally published in parts from 1811 and 1821), but first edition of the complete set (the third volume first appearing in 1821).With the title typo: British Ornithology, Being the History, with a Coloured Representation, of Every Kown [sic] Species of British Birds.George Graves (1784-1839), FLS, was an English publisher, artist, engraver and colourist who worked on botanical and ornithological works. Apart from British Birds (1811-1821), he also wrote and illustrated Ovarium Britannicum (1816), The Naturalist's Pocket Book (1817), and A Monograph on British Grasses (1822). From 1817, he oversaw the hand-colouring and publishing with William Jackson… Read More

A beautiful copy of Ernst Haeckel's influential book on natural history that married art and science.First complete book edition following the original edition in parts published from 1899-1904. With the 51-page supplement. 100 fine plates, some printed in colour, chromolithographed by Adolf Giltsch after sketches by Ernst Haeckel. "First edition of this famous and marvelous work which had a considerable influence on decorative design in the Jugendstil and Art Nouveau period during the beginning of the 20th century and depicts fantastic, real forms and structures found in animal and plant life." Many artists of the era, such as French glass designers Emile Galle and Rene Lalique, kept a copy of Haeckel's illustrations at home. French architect Rene Binet incorporated forms of Radiolarians in his work on the Porte Monumentale at the 1900 Paris Exposition. Dutch architect Henrick Petrus Berlage designed a chandelier based on Discomedusae jellyfish. German photographer Karl Blossfeld also explicitly… Read More

Very good + copy of the second edition (first with hand-coloured lithographic plates) of Strutt's monumental work on the costume of England, first published with 143 copperplate engravings in 1796.The classic study of English costume illustrated with numerous examples from illuminated manuscripts held in the British Library, the Bodleian, and Harleian collections. Complete with 153 hand-colored plates, 10 more than the first edition, of people, costumes, armour, seals, and everyday objects from the time of the Saxons to the end of the 17th century. With 2 hand-coloured frontispieces, 8 hand-coloured plates of Egyptian, Greek and Roman costumes in the introduction, and 143 hand-coloured lithographic plates of English costume.New improved edition with critical and explanatory notes by James Robinson Planche, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Joseph Strutt (1749-1802) was an English engraver, artist, antiquary and writer famous for his work on the history of English costume and sports. Starting with… Read More

Beautiful copy of the rare first edition of this standard work on medieval European armour. With 80 fine illustrations drawn and engraved by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick (some engraved by Richard Bridgens and William Maddocks). Complete with three frontispieces with calligraphic titles and engraved vignettes drawn by Richard Bridgens and engraved by Charles Heath, 70 hand-coloured aquatint plates drawn by Meyrick and engraved by himself or William Maddocks, 10 engraved plates drawn by Meyrick and etched by Richard Bridgens, and 27 illuminated chapter initials.Volume I: 22 hand-coloured plates (VIII to XXX) & 8 b/w etchings (I to VII, XXVI), pp. lxxvii, 206Volume II: 35 hand-coloured plates (XXXI to LVI), 1 b/w engraving (XLIV), pp. 297 Volume III: 13 hand-coloured plates (LVII to LXXIX) & 1 b/w (LXXX) , pp.147, unpaginated 132-page glossaryThe plates are essentially a catalogue of the collection of ancient armour collected by Samuel and his son Llewelyn, with a few items drawn from illuminated manuscripts… Read More

Rare set of 20 parts from the first four series of Leon Sault's fancy-dress or cos-play magazine. Each part (or livraison) with 3 hand-coloured lithographs and 3 lithographs on a particular theme for a total of 118 plates, 58 hand-coloured (missing two plates, Jeune Homme 1:5 and Polonaise 2:5).The designs can be split into allegorical and traditional costumes. Allegorical includes games, the four seasons, the elements (fire, air, snow), winged creatures, fruits and flowers, etc. Traditional includes national costumes of China, Japan, England, Scotland, Scandinavia, Alsace and Brittany as well as French historical costumes from the reign of Henri III, Henri IV, Louis XVI, the French Revolution, Napoleonic, etc.With the popularity of masquerade balls at the court of Empress Eugenie in the Second Empire, demand for unique fancy dress costumes increased. Sault published his fancy dress designs in the magazine L'Art du Travestissements from the 1880s and began selling his unique stage costumes to the… 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 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… Read More

Very good complete copy of this last great English medical botany of the 19th century.With 306 fine hand-coloured botanical plates, several double-page, some finished with gum arabic, drawn from nature and lithographed by David Blair. Each dynamic plate filled to the edge with details of the plant's stalk, leaf, fruit, seed, branch and flower.Each plate with several pages of text including description, habitat, collection and commerce, general character and composition, medical properties and uses.Robert Bentley (1821-1893) was an English botanist and pharmacologist. He was professor in botany at King's College from 1859, and became a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 1874. Henry Trimen (1843-1896) was a London-born botanist who became director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Ceylon (Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka) from 1879-95. He also published The Flora of Ceylon (1893) David Blair (1820-1899?), was a botanical artist and lithographer who also worked on Transactions of the… 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

Good complete collection of the heraldry section from Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopedia. Complete with all 29 copperplate engravings (one triple folding plate counted as three) and 26 pages of explanatory text.With over 750 heraldic shields comprising:650 examples of heraldic motifs (Pl. I to XII)21 coats of arms of religious ranks, helms of aristocracy (Pl. XIII to XIV)36 coats of arms of kings and rulers of Europe, Russia, Ethiopia, Persia, China, etc. (Pl. XV to XVIII)24 coats of arms of French nobility (Pl. XIX to XX)63 coats of arms within a genealogical tree of the kings of France going back five generations from Louis XVI, beheaded in the French Revolution, to Louis XIII (Triple folding plate, Pl. XXI)12 coats of arms with supporting mermaids, bears, tigers, hounds, gryphons, eagles, etc. (Pl. XXII)95 coats of arms of military and religious orders with their names neatly written in pencil (Pl. XXIII-XXVII)Half leather, spine with five raised bands, gilt fleurs-de-lys, blue cloth title label… Read More