Society of Gardeners | Catalogus Plantarum... London, 1730

Society of Gardeners

Catalogus Plantarum... a catalogue of trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers, both exotic and domestic, which are propagated for sale, in the gardens near London. London, 1730

Folio (421 x 286 mm.), engraved frontispiece depicting a formal garden by H. Fletcher, 21 botanical plates after Jacob van Huysum, of which 7 printed in colours in a form of mezzotint, 14 hand-coloured and engraved by H. Fletcher, engraved head-pieces, woodcut initials and ornaments, contemporary calf-backed modern boards, sprinkled edges, plates 8 and 13 shaved at outer margin (not affecting illustrations), dampstain at upper margin of plate 9 (outside of plate-mark, not affecting illustration), spine worn, upper joint cracked

One of the earliest flower books to contain plates printed in colour; "...perhaps unique in that one third of the plates are so printed in mezzotint from a single plate whereas two thirds are engraved and hand-coloured in the usual way" (Hunt).

LITERATURE:

Dunthorne 119; Hunt 485