Lot 86C email save

EDWARDS, Sydenham (1768-1819, illustrator). - [R.W

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London: T. Bensley for John Stockdale, 1812. 2 volumes in one, 4to (285 x 235 mm). 61 hand-colored engraved plates by Frederick J. Sansom after Edwards. Contemporary straight-grained light brown morocco, covers with elaborate outer border tooled in gilt and blind, spine in five compartments with wide semi-raised bands, lettered in the second compartment, the others with overall repeat decoration in gilt and blind, gilt turn-ins, g.e. Condition: bound without half-titles, offsetting of frontispiece onto title to vol.I, title to vol.II mis-bound between plate 53 and p.451, some overall toning to margins, plate 9 spotted, repaired tears to pp. 215/216 and 221/222; expertly rebacked and cornered, some scuffing to extremities. Provenance: Lynn Abbott Trust. an important publication including the work of one of the greatest english botanical artists of the period. As well as being the best published collection of Edwards work, this work is a prime example of opportunistic publishing at the turn of the 19th century. In its original guise this work was published in parts as A Complete Dictionary of Practical Gardening in 1807, but was then re-packaged and re-titled and re-issued twice in 1812 as both The New Botanical Garden and the present work. Edwards was a protégé of William Curtis: his first significant illustrations were published in the latter's Flora Londiniensis, and he went on to become the chief artist during the early days of the Botanical Magazine. He enjoyed a well-earned reputation amongst his contemporaries for the level of scientific accuracy of his botanical illustrations. Cf. Dunthorne 107; Great Flower Books (1990) p.93; cf. Nissen, BBI 480.

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