[Rarebooks] fa: BOTANY - GARDENERS KALENDAR 1739 + ROUSSEAU'S LETTERS ON BOTANY 1785

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, Feb. 12. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/6v45sq8

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Philip Miller: The Gardeners Kalendar, Directing what Works are Necessary to be done Every Month in the Kitchen, Fruit and Pleasure-Gardens, and in the Conservatory: With an Account of the particular Seasons for the Propagation and Use of all Sorts of Esculent Plants and Fruits proper for the Table, and of all Sorts of Flowers, Plants and Trees, that flower in every Month. The fifth edition; with a large index, and an Addition of the Work necessary to be done in the Nursery in each Month. London: Printed for C. Rivington, at the Bible and Crown in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, MDCCXXXIX [1739]. Bound in early calf, 8vo; 333 + [11] pp.; with an index, engraved frontispiece, woodcut decorations and initials. Henrey 1132; ESTC N3406.
With the early ink signatures of several generations of British gardeners: Andrew Hogg; Arthur Hogg, "Gardner[sic], Langholm [Dumfriesshire?]"; and finally, Andrew Hogg, "Gardener, Barrock Lodge [Cumberland], 1844." Binding is well worn, rubbed and scuffed, with losses to the spine leather; hinges cracked but holding; lacking rear blank endapaper; piece missing from upper corner of title-page (not affecting text); occasional (generally light) damp-staining to the leaves; top margins of 5 leaves with small hole and scorch mark (possibly one of the Hoggs dropped a match while lighting his pipe); otherwise, the contents are sound and generally quite bright and fresh.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Thomas Martyn (trans.): Letters on the Elements of Botany. Addressed to a Lady. By the Celebrated J.J. Rousseau. Translated into English, with Notes, and Twenty-four additional Letters, Fully Explaining the System of Linnaeus. By Thomas Martyn, B.D. Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge. London: Printed for B. White and Son, at Horace’s Head, Fleet-Street, MDCCLXXXV [1785]. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Thick 8vo in nineteenth-century half calf and marbled boards; xxiii + [1] + 503 + [29] pp.; folding table. Henrey 1281; ESTC T136469.
First edition of the first English translation of Rousseau's Lettres élementaires sur la botanique a Madame de L***, an epistolary botanic discourse written in 1771-73 and first published in 1782. Includes indices of English and Latin names of plants, the orders of plants, and an index of terms used.
Rubbing and wear to the boards and spine ends; ink marks and light soiling to the title-page, creasing and closed tear to the folding table; one leaf coming loose at the foot (but still secure) with wear to the fore-edge; previous owner's penciled notes on the blank preliminaries; early ink signature of "Jamy Wilson, Chelsea" on verso of dedication leaf and ink note on last leaf of the index; front free-endpaper with creases and some staining from laid in flower petals; scattered spotting and soiling throughout, with occasional unobtrusive evidence of plant matter having been laid in over the centuries. While the book is generally quite clean and sound and securely bound, previous  owners have evidently taken to heart that part of the translator's preface in which he "beg[s] leave to protest against these letters being read in the easy chair at home; they can be of no use but to such as have a plant in their hand."