Lot 54: WAGNER, DANIEL.

Pharmaceutisch-medicinische Botanik, oder Beschreibung und Abbildung aller in der K.K. Österreichischen pharmacopoe vom Jahre 1820 vorkommenden Arzneypflanzen. Vienna: Auf Kosten und im Verlage des Verfassers, 1828-1829

first edition, 2 volumes, folio (text: 408 x 290mm.; plates 460 x 310mm.), 249 hand-coloured lithographed plates after drawings by Ignaz Stenzel, later half calf, a few cancelled inkstamps, a few text leaves browned or slightly spotted

Nissen BBI 2091; Pritzel 9899; Stafleu TL2 16.482

a superbly attractive work, illustrated by Ignaz Stenzel (one of Tranttinick's best illustrators). It undoubtedly contains his best botanical illustration, and brings to an appropriate and glorious conclusion the succession of great Viennese botanical artists initiated by Jacquin.

Wagner was an apothecary at Pressberg (Bratislava), and owned a drug and chemical factory in Pest. Doubtless he arranged the production of his work in Vienna to take advantage of its then unrivalled facilities.

The book has been unjustly unappreciated by historians of botanical illustration, possibly because of its rarity. It is not mentioned by Blunt, Dunthorne, or in Great Flower Books, and is unrecorded in the catalogues of the Lindley Library, RHS, Linnean Society, and Massachusetts Horticultural Society.