BAUER (FRANZ ANDREAS) Delineations of Exotick Plants, Cultivated in the Royal Gardens at Kew. Dr...

BAUER (FRANZ ANDREAS) Delineations of Exotick Plants, Cultivated in the Royal Gardens at Kew. Drawn and Coloured, and the Botanical Characters Displayed According to the Linnaean System, FIRST EDITION IN 3 ORIGINAL PARTS, 30 hand-coloured engraved plates by Daniel Mackenzie, James Basire and Franz Bauer after Franz Bauer (watermarks between 1794 and 1803), one plate in part 3 cut down within platemark and remounted, occasional light damp-staining to one corner, sometimes touching image, original blue-grey boards, printed lettering label ('Kew Plants. No.I[-III]') on upper covers, rebacked, worn with a few paper repairs, preserved in purpose-made fleece-lined morocco-backed solander box [Nissen BBI 97; Dunthorne 28; Great Flower Books, p.73; Hunt 747; Pritzel 494], folio (635 x 470mm.), George Nicol, 1796[-1797-1803] Footnotes: COMPLETE COPY IN ORIGINAL PARTS OF 'WITHOUT DOUBT ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED FLOWER BOOKS... of considerable taxonomic importance, because of its first-publication of several species and because of the accuracy of the plates' (Hunt). Bauer (1758-1840), described by Wilfred Blunt as 'the greatest botanical artist of all time', worked as a botanical illustrator at Kew Gardens for nearly fifty years. All the plates depict ericas, which were grown from seeds collected by Francis Masson in South Africa. It was originally published, as here, in three fascicules, with ten plates in each. The first was issued in an edition of ninety copies ('but ten were spoilt'), the second in eighty copies, and the third in fifty copies. The plates were issued without descriptive text, Sir Joseph Banks explaining in his preface that to have done so would have been 'a superfluous expence... [and] each figure is intended to answer itself every question a Botanist can wish to ask, respecting the structure of the plant it represents; the situation of the leaves and flower are carefully imitated, and the shape of each is given in a magnified, as well as natural size...'. We have been unable to trace a complete set offered at auction in the past forty years. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: • • Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing