Lot 505: CURTIS, Samuel (1779-1860). Monograph on the Genus Camellia... the whole from original

CURTIS, Samuel (1779-1860). Monograph on the Genus Camellia... the whole from original drawings by Clara Maria Pope. London: J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, 1819 [watermarks 1818-1820].

Broadsheets (702 x 580mm; image area of plates: 572 x 465mm). Mounted on cloth guards throughout. Engraved title by J. Girtin, dedication to Georgiana, Duchess of Newcastle, engraved by Girtin, 4 letterpress text leaves on the Camellia Japonica, and 5 very fine-grained hand-coloured aquatint plates by Weddell after Clara Maria Pope. (Expert restoration to margins of each leaf, old dampstaining to upper outer corner of final plate, just affecting image area.) 20th-century green morocco, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in gilt along the length of the spine in the second to fourth compartments (light soiling and discolouration to spine).

EXCEPTIONALLY RARE, THE FIRST AND FINEST MONOGRAPH ON THE SUBJECT AND WITHOUT DOUBT THE MOST DESIRABLE ITEM FOR ANY COLLECTOR OF CAMELLIA PLATES. Clara Maria Pope (d. 1838) is rightly considered one of the greatest botanical artists of her day. She had an artistic background - her father was the amateur artist Jared Leigh (1724-1769), her first husband was the artist Francis Wheatley (1747-1801), and her second husband was the Irish actor and artist Alexander Pope (1763-1835). She was a model for her first husband and from 1796 exhibited her own work at the Royal Academy. Her early works were miniatures and rustic scenes, but her real reputation rests on her flower painting and botanical studies, work with which she almost solely occupied herself from 1816 until her death on Christmas Eve 1838.

Pope also colloborated with Curtis on his only other published work The Beauties of Flora (1806-1820): 'the only large plates, apart from Thornton's Temple of Flora depicting life sized flowers dramatically set in front of a landscape background' (Dunthorne). Samuel Curtis was a cousin of William Curtis (1746-1799), the celebrated English botanist and entomologist, and editor and owner of the Botanical Magazine from 1787 until his death. Samuel married Sarah Caustin (1779-1827), the daughter of his cousin William, in October 1801. He became the proprietor of the Botanical Magazine as a result of his marriage although he did not gain full control of publication until 1827.

All eleven leaves are on paper dated 1818-20 J. Whatman. The text consists of notes on the class and order of the Japan Rose (p. 1), descriptions of the specimens illustrated (pp. 2-7), 'propagation and culture' (pp. 6-7), and a list of 'all Camellias at present known' (p. 8), and is enlivened with Curtis's colourful remarks on a species which interested him deeply: 'Just as the dawn is the harbinger of morning, and the sun does not at once reach his meridian glory, so the Camellias advance upon us by degrees in beauty' (p. 3). The work illustrates 10 varieties of Camillia Japonica or Japan Rose. The unnumbered plates are titled on the image area, as follows:
[plate 1] Single White; Single Red Camellia; Sasanqua Camellia
[plate 2] Double White Camellia; Double Striped Camellia
[plate 3] Pompone or Kew Blush Camellia; Double Red Camellia
[plate 4] Anemome flower'd or Waratah Camellia; Rose coloured or Middlemists Camellia
[plate 5] Buff or Humes Blush Camellia; Myrtle leaved Camellia
BM(NH) I,p.406; Dunthorne 85; Great Flower Books (1990) p.88; Nissen BBI 437; Stafleu & Cowan 1283.

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