BOTANICAL MISCELLANY: Containing figures and descriptions
1830. Item #86929
HOOKER, William Jackson. BOTANICAL MISCELLANY: Containing figures and descriptions of such plants as recommend themselves by their novelty, rarity, or history, or by the uses to which they are applied in the arts, in medicine, and in domestic oeconomy; together with occasional botanical notices and information, VOL. I[-III]. London: John Murray, 1830[-1833]. Three octavo volumes illustrated with 152 (of 154) engraved plates, of which 20 are folding and 64 are hand-colored. The plates are by Dr. Greville, W. J. Hooker, Re. L. Guilding, A.M., W. Wilson, J. Newman, Mme. Bernard, Prof. Boyer, J. F. Klotzsch, Mrs. C. Telfair, Miss Baigrie, engraved by Swann. The author, William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), botanist, was appointed the first full-time director of the Royal Gardens at Kew in 1841. Over the course of his long tenure, which ended at his death in 1865, he helped develop and create the modern Royal Gardens at Kew. Hooker followed the "Botanical Miscellany" with a second series, begun in 1834, entitled "The Journal of Botany." Vol. 1: [iv], 1-222,221-356 pp., plates 1-67, 67 bis, 68-75. Vol. 2: [ii], [1]-421 pp., plates.76-95, suppl. pl. 1-19. Vol. 3: [ii], [1]-390 pp., plates 96-109, 111 & 112, suppl. pl. 21-41. According to Stafleu et al. (TL-2, 2999): "The supplementary plates, all hand-col. copper engr., are sometimes lacking, especially nos. 1-10." This copy has all but one supplementary plate, no. 20, which is also lacking in the copies described by Nissen, Pritzel, and Sitwell amd Blunt. Stafleu continues "The regular plates are (mostly) uncoloured, except for 110, which is coloured, but which is also mostly missing." This copy has almost all regular plates, of which twenty-four in Vol. 1 are colored. Unfortunately it lacks the "mostly missing" plate 110. The plates are clean and bright and, when colored, nicely so. The text, too, is very nearly complete, lacking only the errata slip in Vol. 1. There is some occasional light to moderate foxing, mostly in Vols. 2 and 3, that does not affect the pates. Ex library, with an ink stamp and a perforated stamp on title-page, a perforated stamp at head of first text leaf, and an ink stamp on page 50 in each volume. The plates are unmarked. In worn publisher's bindings of green cloth, each with the book-label of Samuel A. D. Sheppard and a library stamp on front pastedown and call numbers on spine. Vols.
Price: $1,750.00