Gardening

1825. London, James Ridgway, 1825-1830. Royal 8vo. Contemporary green hmorocco. A few minor scratches. Topedge gilt. XX,(224),(3) pp. (Leaves numb. 1-124 + Alphabetical Index). With all 112 engraved plates in beautifull handcolouring. (Plates by J. Hart, M. Hart, W. Hart and Mrs. brown, engraved by S. Watts and Wedell). A few textleaves with faint offsetting from the plates. Plates clean and fine. First edition of this highly esteemed work on Rock-Roses and their cultivated varieties. The work is prized by gardeners for its showry rose-like flowers. They are widely spread and occur in Europe, West and Central Asia, North Africa, North & South America and the Cape Verde Islands. - Nissen BBI: 1922 - Pritzel: 9078 - Sitwell, Great Flower Books p. 141.

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1819. Second edition, quarto, pp xvi, 420, with 10 plain litho plates, 7 hand coloured aquatint plates, 4 maps (of which 3 are folding), errata leaf present, some marking foxing and thumbing throughout, margins frayed of one plate, contemporary marbled boards, rubbed, a later calf spine, endpapers marked. Three small Penzance Library stamps on the title page, partially removed, but no other markings. {Possibly lacking one plate ? This frequently occurs in this work.} [One of the main accounts of the period, during which a large number of plants were both discussed and collected. Clarke Abel, 1780 - 1826) was a British surgeon and naturalist. He accompanied Lord Amherst on his mission to China as the embassy's chief medical officer and naturalist, on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks. The mission was Britain's second unsuccessful attempt to establish diplomatic relations with China and involved travelling to the capital Pekin (Beijing)… Read More

The Half-Moon over against St Dunstan's Church: Tho. Woodward, 1724. Illustrated with three folding engraved plates, commendation leaf, title page, pp (22), 333 (though actually 332), (14) + three page bookseller's advertisement, the plates have slight wear and small tears but there is no loss, some age-toning internally throughout, endpapers browned, a small neat number written on the front endpaper, but otherwise clean and sound, contemporay panelled calf blind-stamped, some rubbing, wear, scuffs and marks, neatly re-backed with a new leather spine with raised bands (probably twentieth century), very sound. [Blanche Henrey 1413 - mentioning the gap in pagination.]. {Switzer, c.1683 - 1745, was a nurseryman,seedsman and garden designer. A sound practical gardener and an early advocate of naturalistic gardening - "If the Beauties of Nature were not corrupted by Art, gardens would be much more valuable".}. First Edition. Full Leather. Good.

London: Effingham Wilson, 1832. Two volumes, small octavo, pp xxii, 358; 304, with both half-titles, slight age-toning and foxing but otherwise sound throughout, original (?) brown boards, slightly marked and worn, neatly re-backed with bew spines and paper labels. [This copy is from the Circulating Library, English College, Lisbon, with their small blind-stamp on the title pages, and a label and number on the front endpapers.]. {As a landscape gardener, Puckler-Muskau is considered of European importance. As a writer of books of travel he holds a high position, his powers of observation being keen and his style lucid, animated and witty.]. First British edition. Boards. Very Good.

The Bell in St Paul's Churchyard: John Martyn, 1673. Illustrated with three engraved folding plates, an engraved portrait, one engraving within the text, small thick octavo, pp xiii, (i), 499, (i), title to the Catalogus Stirpium, v, (i), 115, with the errata leaf, lacking the title page which is supplied in an old-style photo copy, the plates are a little browned and creased and one is splitting along the fold, some age-toning and signs of use throughout, signs of damp damage to the lower margins throughout, with some pages frayed and flaking, (very slight loss of text to about fifteen pages), bound in a recent very simple full calf, no title to the spine. A good working copy of a very scarce title. [John Ray FRS, 1627 - 1705, was an English naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. His classification of plants in his Historia Plantarum, was an important step towards modern taxonomy. Ray rejected the system of dichotomous division by which species were… Read More

at the Spread Eagle, in Westminster-Hall: M. Gillyflower, 1699. Second edition, corrected. Illustrated with a frontispiece and nine engraved plates (of which eight are folding), [Apparently lacking one plate], small octavo, pp [iv], xxxv, (i), 43,[iii], (4), 35-309, (vii), much of the text rather browned and age-toned, a fair few signs of use, though all very tight, the first fifty pages or so have a fair anount of pencil notes and underlinings (see illustration), with a little more on pages 179-199, contemporary calf, rubbed and cracked but sound,rebacked with a fairly recent calf spine, raised bands, new endpapers, (apparently by Bayntuns). The folding plates are rather worn and creased, occasionally frayed at the margins; two have old sellotape repairs, and one is rather badly torn across but without loss. The pagination is erratic, and appears incorrect, but it actuall ties in exactly with the contents pages at the rear. In this copy "An advertisement of J. Evelyn, Esq.", as mentioned… Read More

Picadilly, Fleet Street & Paternoster-Row, London: Printed for the author and sold by J. Debrett; B.& J. White, and T.N. Longman, 1796. Second edition, illustrated with six engraved plates (of which 4 are folding), octavo, pp xvi, 211, (i) (+ one page advertisement for the author's "Culture of the Vine"), slightly age-toned internally, fore-edge slightly marked (which transfers lightly to the margin of page 97 and the opposing blank), the title page a little more marked, but otherwise very sound and tight internally, recently bound in paper covered boards with a printed label on the spine in very clean condition. The second edition is preferable - it is much updated and with four extra plates. Blanche Henrey 1375. [The pineapple had been grown for many decades in England, but it was Speechly, (1735 - 1819), who improved the design and structure of the houses. He discovered that the plants should not be kept at too hot a temperature in the winter and experimented with forcing… Read More

Berne: The author, 1818. First Edition. Two parts in one volume, published in July and September 1818. Recent red three quarters leather with gilt titles and red boards. Clean and tidy without major flaws. Original blue paper wrapper bound in. To the front cover paper is written "Par l'auteur" presumably by Seringe. One plate and one folding table (complete.) Rough cut page edges. A little foxing to the pages only. VI + 1 ff. + 244 pp. Text in French. 210 x 130 mm (8¼ by 5 inches). Nicolas Charles Seringe, first Teacher at the Academy of Bern then Professor of Botany and member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Lyon wrote a work with the exact description, classification and history of flowers. He sought to avoid scientific language, and to arrange the objects in an easy order, through which one can easily learn about plants, how to propagate them and finally how to use them. Première édition. Deux volumes en un seul volume, parus en juillet et septembre 1818. Cuir rouge trois quarts… Read More

Wingbow Press & Leaves of Grass Press, 1981. Third Printing. Very Good-. Text block is clean and free of marks although the whole is faintly age-toned. Cover and fore-edges show shelf and handling wear with minor creasing, soiling, and edge wear. Overall a solid copy showing minimal signs of use. Photo is of the copy here at Barbed Wire Books.

A Paris, chez Desenne, Gattey, Guyot et à Chantilly chez M. Hédouin, 1791.
8vo [217 x 134 mm] of (2) ll., 1 folding plan, 60 pp., 20 plates out of pagination. Full green morocco, gilt lattice pattern on the covers framed by gilt stars, spine ribbed and decorated with 5 red morocco gilt-rimmed medallions, red morocco lettering piece, gilt edges. Contemporary inlaid binding.
First edition and first issue of the 21 beautiful engravings of views of the gardens and buildings of Chantilly, one of the copies on large vellum paper.
Brunet, IV, 899.
It is illustrated with a folding plan and 20 mezzotint style plates by Mérigot et Fils.
"Nature and the arts seem to have contributed to Chantilly's embellishment. There are very few places in France which gather so many objects of munificence and pleasure. The luxury and wealth of the buildings, the variety and beauty of the gardens, the abundance of waters, the brightness of the various points of views, the precious collections, rarities of many kinds… it is… Read More

Melbourne: John Ferres, Government Printer, 1864. Illustrated with seven plain lithographed plates, slightly stained, slim octavo, pp (ii), 86, slighty used internally, page 29/30 with a clean horizontal tear and no loss of text, original green soft cloth, a bit marked and worn, slightly frayed at the margins. RARE. [From the library of the nurseryman Will Ingwersen, with his bookplate on the front endpaper.]. First Edition. Cloth. Good.

Very good copy of Volume XXX (30) of Edwards's Botanical Register, 1844
Complete with all 67 (5 folding) hand-coloured botanical plates (No. 1-67).
The majority by talented woman botanical artist Miss Sarah Drake.
Includes 21 exotic species of showy orchids (Cattleya, Laelia, Oncidium, Bulbophyllum, Encyclia, Calanthe, Prosthechea, Anguloa, Diaphananthe, Polystachya, Pinalia, Bromheadia, endangered Aerides odorata, etc.), as well as sacred lotus, hibiscus, lupine, mountain hydrangea, crocus, astiria, rocktrumpet, Kashmir sage, hill glory bower, etc.
The Botanical Register was launched by Sydenham Edwards in 1815 following his departure as main illustrator to William Curtis's Botanical Magazine. Edwards edited the magazine and drew most of the plates in 14 volumes until his death in 1828. John Lindley then took over as editor on a further 19 volumes under the title Edwards's Botanical Register from 1829 to 1847. By 1832, Miss Drake had become the main illustrator of the magazine, and she would go on to… Read More

Very good copy of Volume LXXII (72) of the whole series (Volume 2 of the Third Series) of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1846.
Complete with all 72 (11 folding) hand-coloured botanical plates (No. 4203-4274).
All plates drawn and lithographed by the prolific botanical artist Walter Hood Fitch.
Includes many exotic flowers and plants including 14 orchids such asPaphiopedilum, Cattleya, Acineta, Miltonia, Mormodes, Cycnoches, Catasetum, Lycaste and Bulbophyllum. Also includes plates of tropical plants such as Japanese hydrangea, bell-fruited mallee, magnolia, fuchsia, alligator-apple, angel's trumpet flower, lipstick plant, lotus, basket vine, etc.
The dynamic illustrations of flowers and leaves take up the whole plate, and are crammed with details of the seeds and fruits.
Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) was one of the great botanists, professor at Glasgow University and later director of Kew Gardens in 1841. He edited Curtis's Botanical Magazine from 1826 onwards, and brought in talented young… Read More

Good copy of Volume XLV (45) or Third of the New Series of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1818.
With 58 (of 81) hand-coloured botanical plates (No. 1948-2022). Seven folding plates. Missing 23 plates: 1945-1947, 1952-1962, 1968, 1989-1994, 2001.
Copperplate engravings after an unknown artist, a few engraved by Weddell.
Includes many exotic flowers and plants including endangered Jamaica sago, bitter ginger, Cape aloe, sweet crabapple, blood lily, Florida arrowroot, brown widelip orchid, boneset, cherimoya, passionflower, sunflower, etc.
John Sims (1749-1831) was an English physician and botanist. Born in Canterbury and educated at the Quaker school in Burford, Oxfordshire, he went on to study medicine at Edinburgh University. He became the first editor of the Botanical Magazine after the death of William Curtis in 1799, and edited the magazine from 1801 to 1826.
Contemporary quarter leather binding dry and flaking, spine with five raised bands, chipped orange and burgundy leather title labels, gilt… Read More

London, John Murray, 1882.. Seventh thousand 1882, corrected by Francis Darwin, 190 x 135 mm, 15 text illustrations, pages: vii, 1-328 including index, plus 1 page publisher's catalogue, original publisher's green cloth, gilt lettering and decoration to spine, blind decoration to covers, original brown endpapers. Slight wear to head and tail of spine, corners slightly worn, small dark stain to to lower cover, pale foxing to endpapers and title page, small ink name or scribble on first blank endpaper, otherwise a very good clean copy. See R. B. Freeman, The Works of Charles Darwin page166, No. 1364. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.