Hortus Botanicus, Vienna, c.1797-1804, 17 volumes, contemporary quarter morocco

Hortus botanicus

A collects ion of fine botanical watercolours. [Vienna, c.1810-1820]

17 volumes (from a set of 33, volumes numbered 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, 18, 20-22, 24-26, 28, 29, 33), folio (430 x 301mm.), a total of 1983 watercolour botanical drawings, some drawings double-page, some plates on shorter paper with extended margins, manuscript contents page at the start of each genus with the reference to Willdenow's edition of Series plantarum (whose publication dates between 1797 and 1805 are noted in the top left-hand corner, with the entry number from Willdenow given in the top right), contemporary quarter morocco over cloth boards bound by E.L. Geyer of Vienna (with tickets), flat spines elaborately gilt, leaves uncut, marbled endpapers, some light foxing at margins (not affecting illustrations), spines and boards lightly discoloured, extremities rubbed

This unique collects ion of fine botanical watercolours follows the Linnaean system. The manuscript heading for each genus and species indicates where in Karl Ludwig Willdenow's comprehensive and influential revision of Linnaeus's Species plantarum (Berlin, 1797-1805) each plant appears. Willdenow revised some of Linnaeus's classifications and the contents leaves note these changes. The Linnaean class numbers are labelled on the spines, as follows: 3.2; 5.1; 5.2; 5.4; 7-8-9; 10.1; 11; 14.2; 16.1; 16.2; 17.1; 19.1; 19.2; 19.3; 21.1; 21.12; 24.2. The final volume in this set contains fungi, though without any Willdenow references as his revision of Linnaeus was not completed.

The fine watercolour drawings all contain the details of their sources, with the name of the original artist in the lower left corner and the printed source in the lower right hand corner; a few also have manuscript notes on the verso indicating if, for example, the seed pods are not shown. The artist of these exceptional drawings is unknown.

The bulk of the plates are taken from Jacquin's numerous works, in particular Icones plantarum rariores (1781-1793), Florae Austriacae (1773-1778) and Plantarum rariorum Horti Caesarei Schoenbrunnensis (1797-1804), along with Aiton's Hortus Kewensis (1789), Curtis's Botanical Magazine and Flora Londinensis, Oeder's Flora Danica, Scopoli's Deliciae florae et faunae insubricae (1786) and Cavanilles's Monadelphiae classis dissertationes decem (1790). Other significant botanical works are also mentioned, including Besler's Hortus Eystettensis, Rheede tot Drakenstein's Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, Roxburgh and Banks's works on the plants of Coromandel, Waldstein and Kitaibel's Descriptiones et icones plantarum rariorum Hungariae (1802-1812), and Pallas's Flora Rossica.

The paper is all Dutch and datable to the late eighteenth-early nineteenth century, with various watermarks from the makers C&J Honig, J. Kool, J. Villedary and D. & C. Blauw.

ESTIMATE:
£80,000-120,000