Denisse, Etienne

Flore d'Amérique dessinée d'après nature sur les lieux. Riche collection de plantes les plus remarquables, fleurs & fruits de grosseur & de grandeur naturelle. Paris: by the author, c. 1843-1846

Broadsheets (18 7/8 x 12 1/4 in.; 480 x 310 mm), 183 hand-colored lithographed plates (only, of 201) after Denisse by Gihout frères and Denisse, numbered 1-201, disbound in two black cloth clamshell boxes; lacking title page, introduction, and plates 65, 89, 97-110, 127 , 168, scattered minor edge tears or tiny marginal chips, some scattered light foxing, more severe on a few plates, five plates browned (10, 49, 51, 53, 121). Six original printed wrappers with a prospectus for the second volume dated 25 September 1844; some creases, edge tears and foxing.

Octavio Vecchi (gift inscription by Paolino Ricoh, dated 15 October 1925 on prospectus)

Great Flower Books 55 (calling for 72 plates only); Nissen, BBI 470; Pritzel 2157; Stafleu & Cowen 11366

First edition of this magnificent work on American botany of the utmost rarity - we have traced no complete copy at auction.

Denisse worked at the botanical garden of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. He lived for many years in Guadeloupe (French West Indies) employed by the government to illustrate plants and to collect specimens. Flore d'Amérique created a sensation when first released, including many species considered exotic at the time.

Octavio Vecchi was a Portuguese agricultural engineer who moved to São Paulo, Brazil, to organize the preservation and reforestation of green areas in that city. He was the author of Les bois indigènes de São Paulo (1916).