Andrews, Henry C.

Letterpress title to volume I, 10 engraved titles. Illustration: 664 handcolored engraved plates by Andrews (64 folding), many heightened with gum arabic. 

10 volumes, 4to (10 1/2 x 8 in.; 266 x 204 mm). Binding: Near-uniform contemporary diced Russia gilt, covers with border of fillets and variations of the Greek-key roll, and uniformly gilt-tooled to style, marbled endpapers and edges. Provenance: Stephen Middleton (armorial bookplate).



Occasional light spotting, browning, and offsetting, some plates just shaved, primarily affecting the plate titles; bindings neatly rebacked, extremities rubbed with some chips.

De Belder sale 7; Dunthorne 8; Great Flower Books, p. 155; Nissen 2382; Plesch sale 14; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 135.

Occasional light spotting, browning, and offsetting, some plates just shaved, primarily affecting the plate titles; bindings neatly rebacked, extremities rubbed with some chips.
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First edition of this showcase of exotic species, which “made a contribution of lasting importance to the literature of botany and horticulture by providing records and means of identification of a great diversity of beautiful and interesting plants, many of them new to science” (Hunt).

The plants depicted and described originate in the main from North and South America, the Caribbean, China, Japan, India, with a large number from Australia and South Africa (among the latter 47 proteas and 26 ixias). Little is known of Andrews, other than his work. He lived for many years in Knightsbridge and married the daughter of John Kennedy, who apparently supplied him with descriptions of the plants for the first five volumes of the present work. The remaining text was written by Adrian Haworth (vol. VI) and George Jackson (vols. VII-X). Each plate has an accompanying leaf of text giving the subject’s common name and binomial, its generic and specific character, as well as giving some details of its origins, who introduced it, and who was responsible for providing the particular example depicted. Unusually, this copy has the printed title for volume one, along with the engraved titles for all volumes (the engraved title is transcribed above). Normally the letterpress titles were discarded by the binders. The wording on the printed title is different and more extensive; see Stafleu. Each plate is accompanied by a leaf of letterpress text, each volume has an index leaf; in addition, volume I has a leaf of preface and errata, volume VI has an index to vols. I–V, and volume X has a leaf of index to vols VI–X.