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Curtis (William) Flora Londinensis;

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or, Plates and Descriptions of Such Plants As Grow Wild in the Environs of London, 6 parts in 3 vol., first edition, 435 hand-coloured engraved plates on 432 sheets, engraved vignette on vol.I letterpress title, 2 letterpress titles and printed dedication to John Coakley Lettsom only, lacking dedication to the Earl of Bute and lists of subscribers, bookplates of W.T Salvin, Croxdale, contemporary half calf, worn with varying degrees of rebacking or repairs to spines, for the Author and B. White, [1775]-1777-1798; Flora Londinensis: containing a History of the Plants Indigenous to Great Britain...the descriptions by William Jackson Hooker, 3 vol., with letterpress title numbered 'vol.IV', 204 hand-coloured engraved plates, handsomely bound in 19th century calf-backed marbled boards with vellum corner-tips, loss to foot of one spine, otherwise very good, for George Graves, 1819 [?-1823], [Nissen 439-440; Pritzel 2004-2005 ; Sitwell pp. 88-89], folio(9)

***An excellent set of Curtis's exhaustive project to depict, initially, every plant species growing within ten miles of London, and ideally to expand to cover all the flora & fauna of Britain. The engravings were taken from studies made by Sydenham Edwards, William Kilburn and James Sowerby. Despite additional funding from Lord Bute and the attempt to raise funds via his other major work The Botanical Magazine, he was unfortunately forced to discontinue publication in 1798, until Hooker published an enlarged, extended edition of the Flora Londinensis between 1817 & 1828. The first edition volumes are of a seemingly superior, finer colouring than many that have appeared at auction; the images in the later three volumes are excellently bright & clean, and bear various early watermarks ranging from 1815-1823. Rare to find such a combined edition being offered, especially in such good condition..

The first edition should read '6 vol.', not '6 parts in 3 vol.'

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