[Rarebooks] fa: BOTANY - Poiret & Turpin LECONS DE FLORE 1829 - 3 vols. in 2 w/ 64 COLORED PLATES

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 19. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/lzncc4x

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Jean-Louis Marie Poiret; Pierre-Jean François Turpin: Lecons de Flore. Cours Complet de Botanique : Explication de tous les les systemes, introduction a l'etude des plantes... Suive d'une Iconographie Vegetale en cinquant-six planches coloriees offrant pres de mille objets. Paris: C.L.F. Panckouke, 1829-30. Three volumes bound in two; 8vos (20.5 cm) in full period straight-grained morocco ruled and lettered in gilt; viii, 278, [6] pp.; 174, 4 pp.; 199, [1] pp.; with two folding tables and 64 hand-colored plates (complete).

The exquisite plates are by Pierre-Jean François Turpin (1775-1840), one of the great botanical illustrators of the nineteenth century. Exposure to moisture has caused rippling and damp-staining to the text leaves and the folding tables. Remarkably, however, the 64 plates, bound at the end of vol. II, show only minimal effects: while the first two plates are noticeably damp-stained, and a few others show small, generally light areas of staining in the margins, the great majority are clean and quite lovely, the hand-coloring vivid and fresh. The large engraved  folding table, "Organographie Végétale," in addition to being damp-stained, has been roughly detached: while the table is complete, a large marginal stub remains bound into the volume. Morocco bindings with some scattered light spotting, wear to the corners, sunning to the spines. The half-title of vol. I bears a presentation inscription in French to a Walter J Drew from Albert Simmons[?], "'The Hermitage', San Stefano les Vignes[?], pres: Constantinople, Juillet 1922."