Carl Linnaeus | Hortus Cliffortianus, Amsterdam, 1737, contemporary mottled calf

Carl Linnaeus

Hortus Cliffortianus plantas exhibens quas in hortis tam vivis quam siccis, Hartecampi in Hollandia. Amsterdam: [no publisher], 1737

FIRST EDITION, folio (412 x 245mm.), half-title, engraved allegorical additional title, with facing leaf of letterpress explanation, title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, 36 engraved plates, 20 after G.D. Ehret, most with letterpress captions, contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, minor wear to spine ends

"THE MOST ELABORATE ILLUSTRATED WORK BY LINNAEUS" (Cleveland Herbal). An important botanical work, being the catalogue of the magnificent garden at Hartekamp of the Anglo-Dutch banker George Clifford. Ehret's masterful and accurate drawings brought a new standard of excellence to botanical illustration, while Linnaeus's definitions of each species established the groundwork for his system of binomials.

LITERATURE:

Cleveland Herbal 387; Dunthorne 186; Hunt 504; Nissen BBI 1215; Soulsby 328; Stafleu TL2 4719

PROVENANCE:

The Hon. Thomas Clifford, Tixall, Staffordshire; by descent to Thomas Aston Clifford Constable, Bart; by descent to Sir Frederick Augustus Talbot Constable, 3rd Bart, Constable Burton, Yorkshire, sale in these rooms, 6 November 1899