Trew and Vogel | Plantae selectae, [Nuremberg]: 1750-73, 10 parts in one vol., contemporary half sheep

Christoph Jacob Trew

Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortis curiosorum nutrita manu artificiosa doctaque pinxit Georgius Dionysius Ehret. [Nuremberg, 1750-1773]

FIRST EDITION, 10 parts in one volume, folio (505 x 357 mm.), 10 engraved titles in red, gold, and black (of which titles to parts 2-7 repeat printed text of part one, with correct corresponding Roman numerals for part number and date of publication added in manuscript), 100 hand-coloured engraved plates by Ehret, captioned in gold, 3 mezzotint portraits of Trew, G.D. Ehret, and J.J. Haid bound after plates (without the portrait of Vogel found in some copies), contemporary half sheep, gilt spine with raised bands in eight compartments, marbled edges, portrait of Trew with 40mm. closed repaired tear (extending slightly into image), slight marginal staining to last few text leaves, occasional light spotting and browning, spine skilfully repaired and recornered, extremities slightly rubbed

First edition of one of the greatest eighteenth-century botanical colour-plate books, without the very rare supplement by Vogel (published in two decuriae in 1790-1792), or the engraved portrait of Vogel found in some copies (although the collation of this work is variable). The Plantae Selectae is considered by Nissen to be the finest botanical work ever printed in Germany. Trew, physician at Nuremberg and amateur botanist, admired the talent and skill of his younger countryman, Georg Ehret, a gardener and flower painter. This work is their major collaboration, although Ehret did contribute several drawings to Trew's Hortus nitidissimis. Ehret is one of the great painters of flowering plants in the eighteenth century and all 100 plates of the Plantae selectae were painted by him. The work was conceived as early as 1742 when 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, Deo volante, constitute an appendicem to Weinmann’s publication but will, I hope, find a better reception than his". In 1748, agreement was reached that Johann Jacob Haid from Augsburg should provide the engravings, and the first part appeared in 1750. Trew died in 1769, before the text of the last three decuriae was written and before the illustrations of Decuriae IX and X were printed. The work was finished by Benedict Christian Vogel, Professor of Botany at the University of Altdorf.

PROVENANCE:

Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (1861-1948): armorial bookplate

LITERATURE:

Dunthorne 309; Great Flower Books, p. 78; Hunt 539; Nissen BBI 1997; Stafleu TL2 15.131