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Mr. Philip D. Burden
P.O. Box 863,
Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks HP6 9HD,
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0) 1494 76 33 13
Email: enquiries@caburden.com
Hunt described this work as a “splendid, complicated, basic, English flora”. The work was originally published in six fascicles which were to be bound in two volumes. This example is bound in three however there were only ever two title pages issued as present here. There were a total of seventy-two numbers each containing six plates with accompanying textual descriptions. The sizes of the plates vary but this design enabled the flowers to be depicted life size. This example lacks as is often the case the ‘Catalogue of Certain Plants … in the environs of Settle’ and the ‘General Observations’ however it does have all the indexes which are so often discarded before binding.
William Curtis (1746-99) was a trained apothecary but soon developed a passion for botany. At the age of twenty-seven he was appointed ‘Praefectus Horti and Demonstrator’ to the Society of Apothecaries at Chelsea. Working in the field of British flora he attracted the support of Lord Bute. He began a project to produce a folio work on the wild flowers growing within a ten mile radius of London. Shortly after he resigned his position at Chelsea to devote his time to the ‘Flora Londinensis’ as it was to be called. “The ‘Flora Londinensis’ is much more comprehensive in scope than its title suggests, for it embraces most of the English flora, as a result of which it should be properly regarded as THE FIRST COLOUR-PLATE NATIONAL FLORA OF ENGLAND” (De Belder sale). By 1798 seventy parts had been issued including 434 fine hand coloured copper plate engravings. It was however proving to be a financial disaster. Henrey states that no more than 300 copies of any number were printed. In 1787 he had turned to the ‘Botanical Magazine’ which was not only offered in a smaller format but included plates of more exotic plants from distant shores. Many of the plates are engraved by James Sowerby (some of his first works), Sydenham Edwards and W. Kilburn. This example includes the variant first title page cited by Hunt bearing the back-dated imprint of B. White & Son. Provenance: with the bookplate of Johannishus Bibliothek, Sweden pasted to inside covers. Blunt; Dunthorne 87; Henrey 595; Hunt 650; Nissen BBI 439; Sotheby’s London De Belder sale 27 April 1987 lot 86; Stafleu TL2.
William Curtis (1746-99) was a trained apothecary but soon developed a passion for botany. At the age of twenty-seven he was appointed ‘Praefectus Horti and Demonstrator’ to the Society of Apothecaries at Chelsea. Working in the field of British flora he attracted the support of Lord Bute. He began a project to produce a folio work on the wild flowers growing within a ten mile radius of London. Shortly after he resigned his position at Chelsea to devote his time to the ‘Flora Londinensis’ as it was to be called. “The ‘Flora Londinensis’ is much more comprehensive in scope than its title suggests, for it embraces most of the English flora, as a result of which it should be properly regarded as THE FIRST COLOUR-PLATE NATIONAL FLORA OF ENGLAND” (De Belder sale). By 1798 seventy parts had been issued including 434 fine hand coloured copper plate engravings. It was however proving to be a financial disaster. Henrey states that no more than 300 copies of any number were printed. In 1787 he had turned to the ‘Botanical Magazine’ which was not only offered in a smaller format but included plates of more exotic plants from distant shores. Many of the plates are engraved by James Sowerby (some of his first works), Sydenham Edwards and W. Kilburn. This example includes the variant first title page cited by Hunt bearing the back-dated imprint of B. White & Son. Provenance: with the bookplate of Johannishus Bibliothek, Sweden pasted to inside covers. Blunt; Dunthorne 87; Henrey 595; Hunt 650; Nissen BBI 439; Sotheby’s London De Belder sale 27 April 1987 lot 86; Stafleu TL2.
CURTIS, William
Flora Londinensis; or, Plates and Descriptions of Such Plants as Grow Wild in the Environs of London; with their Places of Growth, and Times of Flowering; their several Names according to Linnaeus and other Authors: with a particular Description of each Plant in Latin and English. To which are added, Their several Uses in Medicine, Agriculture, Rural Oeconomy, and other Arts
Printed for and Sold by the Author, at his Botanic-Garden, Lambeth-Marsh; and B. White and Son, Booksellers, in Fleet-Street, London, [1775]1777-1798
Folio (490 x 305 mm. each), three volumes, half calf, early marbled paper boards, worn, gilt ruled, spine with ornate gilt ruled compartments and gilt title. With variant title page bearing vignette engraved plate with some repair, Preface followed by ‘Uses of the Indexes and a Catalogue, 432 hand-coloured plates with accompanying descriptive texts. With second title as called for, all six indexes to the fascicles bound at the end of each volume and 10 page general index. Includes additional manuscript index in a neat hand for each of the three volumes. Lacking the dedication to the Earl of Bute in the first volume and the list of subscribers. Later endpapers, some initial and final leave folds, otherwise a fine clean example remarkably free of the text offsetting which so often afflicts this work.
Stock number: 7491
SOLD