Weinmann, Johann Wilhelm

FIRST EDITION, 4 volumes, folio (447 x 290mm.), titles in German and Latin, printed in red and black, mezzotint allegorical frontispiece and two portraits printed in blue, 1025 engraved and mezzotint plates, printed in colours and finished by hand, some double-page, CONTEMPORARY RED MOROCCO GILT, covers with triple gilt fillet borders, spines elaborately gilt in seven compartments (lettered in two) with floral and foliate motifs, gilt edges, a very few plates slightly browned, some neat repairs to bindings

Miguel Copin, late eighteenth-century bookseller's label

Great Flower Books, p.80; Dunthorne 327; Nissen BBI 2126

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A MAGNIFICENT COPY WITH WIDE MARGINS OF "THE FIRST BOTANICAL BOOK TO USE COLOUR-PRINTED MEZZOTINT SUCCESSFULLY" (Hunt), this work certainly represents a technical and artistic advance on its  precursors, Martyn’s Historia plantarum rariorum and the Society of Gardeners' Catalogus plantarum. It also contains Georg Dionysius Ehret’s first published botanical illustrations (although unsigned). Ehret served his apprenticeship as a botanical draughtsman under Weinmann who exploited him mercilessly, paying him a pittance for the several hundred drawings he did for the Phytanthoza, leading to a rift between the two men. This is perhaps why Ehret is nowhere acknowledged in the book. The engraving was done by Bartolomäus Seuter, Johann Ridinger and, in the later volumes, Johann Jakob Haid, who also engraved Ehret’s plates for Trew’s Plantae selectae (see lot 48).