Botany

London: G. Henderson 1833. 4to. 2 vols bound as 1, 1833 and 1834. All published in this series. 55 plates including 52 hand coloured, 38 have four images on a page, 3 have two images on a page. Two engraved title pages. The binding is poor, and there is some offsetting and foxing. . Good. Half-Leather. 1833.

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

Pretoria: Republic of South Africa. Department of Agricultural Technical Services [0-621-02854-1] 1975, 1976. (4to) 1040pp. Very good plus, no dust jackets. Bright green leatherette with gilt lettering. Maps, indices. Light puckering on the front cover of vol.1. Publisher series: Flora of South Africa. Vol. 1 Dicotyledons. Vol. 2 Gymnosperms and Monocotyledons. Locale: South Africa. (Natural History, Botany--South Africa).

London: Printed By Stephen Couchman, 1804. First Edition . Half Leather - Hardbound. Good/No Jacket. Contains plates 740 through 786, collated and complete with text; All plates are hand colored, and number 770 is folding; Bound with index of the first twenty volumes, which was published in 1805; Original boards are rubbed and worn at corners; Later leather rebacking is rather crude, though volume remains tight; Occasional light foxing and/or offsetting, though overall contents are intact, and generally very clean; Coloring on plates remains bright and very lovely.

London : Lovell Reeve, 1856 A very good to near fine copy of the rarest title in Lovell Reeve's Popular History series. Seemann was a botanist who made his name when he was appointed naturalist (on the recommendation of W J Hooker) to HMS Herald for the Kellett voyage of exploration to the American West Coast and Pacific. The series, aimed primarily at younger readers as an informed introduction to natural history, varies greatly in the quality of its authors as the publishers set strict budget limits on publication costs. In recent quarter leather binding with raised bands, gilt compartments, and gilt titles to spine and marbled boards. New endpapers. With 20 high quality colour printed plates. 17 x 13.5 cms. There is browning to page edges and the odd light mark, but otherwise this is a very good internally. A lovely book.

LONDON : John White, 1807 A very good copy of Rousseau's Letters translated and explained by Professor Thomas Martyn, 7th corrected and improved edition bound with Thirty-Eight plates, also by Thomas Martyn, 1794. In newer half leather binding with title label to spine and marbled boards. Page edges marbled. Letters is 503 pp plus index sections, with folding table outlining Linnaeus' system. The Thiry-Eight plates, a complete work in itself with separate title page, but prepared to link with the Letters, is 72 pp with 38 beautiful hand coloured plates by Nodder. The binding is in very good condition with a little scuffing to the spine. The contents are generally in very good condition with nice clean text pages. The plates are clean and brightly coloured. There is a small stain which affects the bottom left hand corner of plates 36-8, not affecting images.

Edinburgh and London: Maclachlan & Stewart; Bladwin, Cradock & Joy, 1823 A very good copy in 6 volumes dating from 1823-1828, with 360 hand coloured plates. Robert Kaye Greville, 1794-1866, had medical training but an assured income allowed him to choose a more diverse life in science and art, and in his public work - where he became a leading voice against slavery. He published his Scottish Cryptogamic Flora in monthly parts, intending it to complete the catalogue of flora in Smith and Sowerby's English Botany. He drew all the specimens himself and these drawings together with the detailed text, form a comprehensive picture of the scottish cryptogamic flora as it was in the early nineteenth century. This copy is in contemporary marbled boards with cloth spines that have been rebacked and had new title labels. The binding is possibly a publisher's one. The boards have general wear but the bindings are sound. New endpapers have been added. Each volume has a half title and title page,… Read More

London: W. M. Thompson, 1882. Fifth Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. Walton, Elijah. The illustrations are particularly attractive to alpine enthusiasts since they include mountain backgrounds by the famous alpine artist. Very scarce. 5th edition (same contents & size as first edition but different colored binding), 335mm tall x 241mm, viii + 12 chromolithograph plates each mounted on thick stock paper (blank verso), each followed by a page of descriptive text (blank versos), each chromolithograph page is preceded by a thin blank protective page. Complete with all pages and plates. NOT ex-library, previous owner name penned to the first blank protective page (blank page before first illustrated plate). AEG, original blue cloth covers, rebacked with new navy cloth spine with gilt lettering (Walton's books almost always fall apart and need rebacking), new EPs, highly gilt decorated patterns front cover, matching patterns in blind on rear cover,… Read More

Melbourne, VIC, Australia: CSIRO Publishing, 2009. 687 pages with colour and b/w illustrations. Complete or partial accounts of 21 families are provided, including 78 genera and 654 species and infra-specific taxa. . Soft Cover. Near Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

NY: Knopf, 1977. First American edition. Trade softcover. Published NY: Knopf, 1977, first printing. Large 8vo., 6 1/4" x 9 1/4", x+181pp., illustrated with plates. Fine. . 1st. Soft Cover. Fine/No Jacket, As Issued. 8vo..

Aberdeen: Geo Clark and Son, 1845 An extremely scarce original copy of Edmondston's Shetland flora. Thomas Edmonston produced his first list of Shetland plants when he was 11 years old and had the good fortune to be able to discuss and share it with Joseph Hooker. He expanded the list and produced this work when he was 20 years old. It was and has remained an important work on Shetland's flora. It is in the original blind stamped decorative cloth binding with gilt titles to the front board. The binding is in very good condition. The original yellow endpapers are present and a previous owner has glued the top flap of an envelope to the fpd with their ink notes of plants and a reference to Tingwall manse. There is also a small ink '35' to the top corner of the fep. Contents: title, dedication, preface, introduction pp xxvii; arrangement of Shetland plants 1-67 with errata slip. Contents clean with extensive scholarly annotation - such as references to locations and Icelandic flora.

Ipswich, MA: Self Published. Very Good; Wraps toned and soiled, longitudinal crease, edges chipped.. 1877. Softcover. Original printed gray wraps. 6 x 9 inches. 1952 typed book purchase receipt laid in from Mass. Horticultural Society with offsetting to inside cover and title page. Bound in at rear is printed slip advertising Haskell’s selection of 30 grape vine cuttings for $100. The author describes his efforts to grow and hybridize grapes on his coastal Massachusetts estate, including his efforts to collect wild grape specimens, grafting native and foreign vines, and cross-fertilization. Also describes forty of his successful varieties. Gabler 23350. Amerine & Borg 1656. OCLC locates 15 copies. Only one other copy noted for sale in the trade at time of listing. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 18 pages .

Very good copy of the fifth volume of Andrews' magnus opus, with 72 stunning botanical plates.Title page and frontispiece undated, but many plates dated 1803.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 5 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 the Cape of Good Hope, the Malabar coast (India), New Holland (Australia), the West Indies 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… Read More

Lovely copy of a rare book on Indian flora by talented amateur female artist Lena LowisWith 30 elegant botanicals by Lena Lowis, lithographed by David Blair, and printed by M. & N. Hanhart. Among the exotic flowers portrayed are poinsettia, flame lily, bougainvillea, hibiscus, clustervine, coralbush, Rangoon creeper, Nepal trumpet flower, white orchid tree, elephant creeper, oleander, Darwin pea, bottlebrush and Eastern prickly pear.No publication date, but preface dated 1878.Lena Lowis (1845-1919) was a talented writer and botanical illustrator. She was born Selina Caroline Shakespear in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India, the daughter of British Indian Army officer, Col. Sir Richmond Shakespear. She married Lt. Col. Ninian Lowis of the Bengal Staffs Corps and moved to England in 1868.David Blair (1820-1899?), was a botanical artist and lithographer who also worked on Transactions of the Linnean Society (1875), Berthold Carl Seemann and James Britten's Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (1872-8),… Read More

1856. Second royal octavo edition. Very good +. The royal octavo edition of Birds of America as first published in 1840-44, and was followed by several more editions. This plate is from the second edition, published in 1856, distinct for the colored backgrounds. They are also a little different in that one species is pictured rather than a grouping of birds. This work was done to make Audubon's prints, highly in demand, more affordable for the general public. These hand colored lithographs were printed by J. T. Bowen. Showing the male on a branch of Ipomea.