Alexander McDonald | A complete dictionary of practical gardening, London, 1807, 2 vols, straight-grained red morocco

Richard Watson Dickson ("Alexander McDonald")

A complete dictionary of practical gardening: comprehending all the modern improvements in the art... with correct engravings... from original drawings by Sydenham Edwards. London: R. Taylor and Co. for George Kearsley, 1807

FIRST EDITION, 2 volumes, 4to (268 x 206mm.), 61 hand-coloured engraved plates after Sydenham Edwards, 13 plain plates of garden equipment and buildings, contemporary straight-grained red morocco, spines with raised bands in six compartments, edges gilt, marbled endpapers, scattered spotting and browning, some transfer from plates onto facing text leaves, inkstain to front endpapers in volume 1, upper joints starting to split, spine ends frayed

After studying medicine at Aberdeen University Dickson became principally interested in agriculture. He wrote extensively and this, his second book, was published under the pseudonym of Alexander Macdonald.

LITERATURE:

Nissen BBI 479