[Rarebooks] FS: First book in English on the pineapple! York: 1779. w/subscriber's receipt signed by the author!

[Kenneth Karmiole]

(NATURAL HISTORY) Speechly, William. A TREATISE ON THE CULTURE OF THE PINE APPLE and the Management of the Hot-House. Together with a Description of Every Species of Insect That Infest Hot-Houses, with Effectual Methods of Destroying Them. York: A. Ward, and Sold by the Author. 1779. 8vo. v,xvii,(1),100,(3),102-186,(2)pp. Complete with the 2 engraved plates (one a large folding plan) and the folding explanation of the plate at p. 101. With the list of subscribers, and the final leaf of explanation of the arge pplan. Original marbled boards, most of the spine's orig. paper chipped away. An untrimmed copy. Facing the title page is a printed slip receipt filled out in manuscript by the author. The receipt is made for a subscriber, Charles Anderson Pelham, Esq., who paid the author one guinea, and it is hand signed by Speechly.    $1,250.00 (trade discount allowed)
Speechly's first book, and the first book on the pineapple in English. At the time of publication the author was the gardener to the Duke of Portland. The recipient of this copy, who is listed on the subscriber's list purchasing 4 copies, is the 1st Baron Yarborough, 1749-1823, a member of the House of Commons and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Note: printed subscription receipts (in this case signed by the author!) in the 18th century are very rare.

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