Lot 89: MILLER, Philip (1691-1771). Figures of the most Beautiful, Useful, and Uncommon Plants described in The Gardeners Dictionary... London: Printed for the Author; to be sold by John and Francis Rivington, and others, 1771.

2 volumes, 2 o (423 x 268 mm). Engraved headpiece to dedication. 300 hand-colored engraved plates after Georg Dionysius Ehret, Richard Lancake, John Miller, William Houstoun and John Bartram, junior, by Miller, J. Jefferys and J. Mynde, some with color-printed base, 2 folding (some offsetting, occasional mostly pale spotting and browning, occasional light soiling). (Some occasional offsetting to text.) Late 19th- or early 20th-century half morocco, marbled boards (some light rubbing). Provenance : Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Stickney Fund (bookplate dated 1878; stamps). Second edition. A very attractive work that includes 16 plates after Georg Dionysius Ehret, 155 after Richard Lancake, 83 by and after John Miller (aka Johann Sebastian Mueller). There are a number of unattributed plates but American plant hunters are credited with having provided three original drawings: two by William Houstoun (1695-1733) who had left Miller all his papers and drawings on his death, and one by John Bartram (1699-1777) of Philadelphia, the first American-born botanist. In the preface Miller explains that the expense of the production have caused him "...almost from the Beginning... to contract his Plan, and confine it to those Plants only, which are either curious in themselves, or may be useful in Trades, Medicine, &c, including the Figures of such new Plants as have not been noticed by any former Botanists." Great Flower Books, p.68; Dunthorne 209; Johnston Cleveland Botanical Collections 503; Henrey 1097; Hunt 566; Nissen BBI 1378; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 6059. (2).