BROOKSHAW, George (1751-1823). Groups of Flowers, Drawn and Accurately Coloured after Nature, with Full Directions for the Young Artist –Groups of Fruit –Six Birds. London: Thomas McLean; printed by Turner and Hadley, Minerva Press, 1819.

3 parts in one volume, folio (368 x 260). Half-titles, advertisement leaf in first and third part; 36 plates total, comprising 18 stipple-engraved plates after Brookshaw in two states: hand-colored and uncolored. (Some light spotting to text.) Original boards, modern rebacking gilt-lettered pigskin label on upper cover (edges renewed, some rubbing to extremities). Provenance: Mrs. A.L. Thompson (gilt-lettered on upper cover).

A complete set of the second edition of Brookshaw's finely illustrated series of natural history plates. "Botanical drawing books were popular during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as many amateur artists, especially female ones, were eager for instruction in the skill of painting flowers in particular...often with a handful of coloured plates facing or followed by uncoloured versions for the students to practise on. Brookshaw published a trio of these little books in 1817...but the first issues are exceedingly rare" (Pomona). Blanche Henrey, the botanical bibliographer, admitted to having seen "only the second edition of each of these works". Dunthorne 53, 55, and 54; Oak Spring Flora 91 (first part); Oak Spring Pomona 41 (second part); Nissen IVB (third part).