Lot 22: CANDOLLE, Augustin Pyramus de (1778-1841). Histoire des

CANDOLLE, Augustin Pyramus de (1778-1841). Histoire des Plantes Grasses, par Redouté et Decandolle. Paris: Imprimerie de Didot l'Ainé, 1790 [but 1799-1804 or later]. 2 volumes, 2 o (489 x 333 mm). Letterpress titles. 112 stipple engraved plates only (of 182), printed in colors and finished by hand, after P.-J.Redouté and Henri-Joseph Redouté (some occasional pale spotting). (Titles somewhat spotted, without preface, half-titles or indices.) Contemporary gold- and blind-tooled red morocco, sides with outer gilt "Greek Key" border between two gilt palmette rolls, pointillé devices at the corners, two varying blind-tooled rolls surrounding an inner panel of gilt gothic arches, spines in six compartments with five double-raised bands, lettered in two, the remaining with elaborate gilt design, edges gilt, in the style of Christian Kalthoeber (a bit rubbed and worn, some wear to heads of spines, joints and corners, vol. I with small loss on front cover). Provenance : Henry Foulkes, Jesus College, Oxford (contemporary ownership inscriptions on flyleaves). LARGE-PAPER ISSUE OF REDOUTÉ'S FIRST MAJOR WORK AS AN ILLUSTRATOR. It was also the first major botanical work to rely on color-printed plates using techniques refined by Redouté, and the last publishing enterprise stimulated by C.-L. l'Hériter de Brutelle. While Redouté began work on the drawings on vellum, R.-L. Desfontaines "found a young Swiss botanist, Augustin-Pyramus De Candolle.., then a student at the garden, ready to undertake the task of writing the descriptions of each species. Desfontaines also found a publisher... Out of this collaboration... developed the now famous Plantarum historia succulentum, perhaps better known by its French title Plantes grasses... The original folio edition was struck off in 100 copies... The number of copies printed for the quarto and for other later editions is not known" (Stafleu in Hunt Redouteana, pp.15-16). The original edition was published in fasicles: the first 28 (containing 180 plates) between 1799 and 1805, when an argument between de Candolle and the publisher halted publication. "The work was resumed through the interest of the botanist J.-B.-.A. Guillemin (1796-1862), who issued, in quarto edition, another three fasicles (nos.29-31 [with a further 19 plates]). A thirty-second fasicle of five plates remains unpublished." A date cannot be assigned to the present issue. Stafleu and Cowan wrote that the work was "one of the nightmares of botanical bibliography" and go on to say that "Several editions are known to have been distributed, but new title-pages, partial indexes and new covers were issued at different times either with existing stock or with later reprints... There are hardly any identical copies. Very often plates are lacking, but... a huge number of 'variants' exist." The present set includes an obviously spurious date on titles which appear, from the style of the typography, to have been printed in the 1820's. Dunthorne 241; Great Flower Books, p.53; Hunt Redouteana 6; Nissen BBI 321; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 983.

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ANITA PEEK GILGER, M.D.