- 61
Trew, Christoph Jakob, and Benedict Christian Vogel
Description
- Plantæ Selectæ [–Supplementum Plantarum Selectarum] quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortis curiosorum nutrita manu artificiosa doctaque pinxit Georgius Dionysius Ehret Germanus occasione haud vulgari collegit nominibus propriis notisque subinde illustravit et publico usui dicavit Joannes Jacobus Trew medicus norimbergenis in aes incidit et vivis coloribus repræsentavit Johannes Jacobus Haid pictor et chalcographus Augustanus. [Nuremberg:] 1750–1773; Supplement, [Augsburg:] 1790 [–1792]
- paper, ink, leather
2 vols. in one, large folio (21 1/2 x 15 1/2 in.; 521 x 393 mm, uncut). Binding: Expertly bound to style in eighteenth-century "Metta Catharina" diced calf, spine gilt in six compartments, covers with gilt-tooled acanthus borders. Original boards preserved in brown buckram clamshell case. Provenance: Franz T. Sangismund (contemporary signature in lower margin of first part-title and first plate) — Robert De Belder (Sotheby's London, 28 April 1987, lot 363) — Ladislaus von Hoffmann (Christie's New York, 4 June 1997, "An Important Botanical Library, The Property of a Gentleman," lot 144).
Some mostly minor marginal soiling and dampstaining, few marginal tears, images generally not affected. Minimal wear to binding.
Literature
Condition
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Catalogue Note
Christoph Trew (1695–1769), a physician and amateur botanist, had for a number of years been an admirer of Ehret's work. Ehret, a brilliant botanical artist, was unrivalled in his ability to "achieve realism, majesty, ineffable colour, all in one breathtaking look" (Hunt). He was born in Heidelberg in 1710 and originally worked as a gardener, practicing drawing in his spare time. His artistic abilities led him to the service of a Regensburg banker named Leskenkohl, who had commissioned him to copy plates in van Rheede tot Draakestein, Hortus indicus malabaricus (1678–1693). It was during this period that Trew met Ehret.
Trew was to remain a friend and patron of Ehret's throughout his life; and by 1742, the germ of what was to become the present publication was already under discussion. Trew wrote to Christian Thran in Carlsruhe, "Every year I receive some beautifully painted exotic plants [by Ehret] and have already more than one hundred of them, which with other pieces executed by local artists should later on … constitute an appendicem to Weinmann's publication."
Meanwhile, Ehret had moved to London in the late 1730s, where he painted the recently introduced exotics at the Chelsea Physic Garden and established himself as a teacher of flower painting and botany. Discussions about the projected work continued by letter until 1748, when Johann Jacob Haid from Augusburg agreed to produce the engravings from Ehret's drawings. The first part was published in 1750, with the six subsequent parts appearing before Trew's death in 1769. The text to the final three parts remained unwritten and the plates to parts IX and X were still to be produced. The work was brought to a conclusion by Benedict Christian Vogel, Professor of Botany at the University of Altdorf.
The binding on the present copy comes from a cargo of hides from the tanneries of St. Petersburg. The hides were aboard the Baltic brigantine Fraumetta Catharina, which sank in the harbor of Plymouth in December 1787. The wreck of the ship was discovered by an archaeological team in the 1970s and the cargo of leather was gradually recovered and restored. A booklet documenting the restoration of the leather is included.
A well preserved and superbly colored copy of the celebrated Plantæ Selectæ.