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Details
ELIZABETH BLACKWELL (d.1758)
A Curious Herbal, containing five hundred cuts of the most useful plants... from drawings taken from life. London: Samuel Hading, 1737[-?1739]. 2 volumes, 2 (365 x 23 mm). 28pp. letterpress descriptive text to plates 1-56, otherwise engraved throughout, two titles, five dedicatory leaves, one leaf commendation from the Royal College of Physicians, one leaf of 'English index', 2 leaves 'Catalogus Plantarum..', 111 leaves of explanatory text and 500 hand-coloured plates. (Occasional browning and spotting, vertical creases to titles and final leaf in vol.II.) Contemporary diced russia gilt, (extremities worn).
FIRST EDITION. One of the first English botanical books to be issued in parts, 125 parts, the work published 2s per part coloured, 1s uncoloured. Its bibliographical history is complicated; in "there is no uniformity with regard to the number of dedications contained in the various issues, or in the order in which the preliminary leaves are arranged" (Henrey), and the work's publishing history is not fully understood. The present copy appears to be an early issue: both titles are dated 1737, and the 'vol.2' on vol.II title is printed and not altered in manuscript. However the presence of the letterpress descriptive leaves has, in the past, been taken to indicate that vol.I is a later issue second edition. An alternative in this case is that the letterpress leaves represent an early and quickly abandoned experiment.
Elizabeth Blackwell undertook the work with the encouragement of various eminent members of the medical profession and with the intention of paying off her husband Alexander's debts. She took a house opposite the Chelsea Physic Garden, at 4, Swan Walk, at the suggestion of Isaac Reed, in order to draw and engrave the plants. Her husband helped by supplying the common names of the plants in various languages. The work was a success and she achieved her object. She accompanied her husband to Sweden where he was employed as an agricultural expert (Linnaeus visited him in 1746), unfortunately he became envolved in politics, was arrested and eventually beheaded on 29 July 1747, for his part in a conspiracy to alter the Swedish succession. Elizabeth, who died in 1758, is buried in the churchyard of Chelsea Old church. Cf. Henrey 450-453; cf. Lisney 172-180. (2)
A Curious Herbal, containing five hundred cuts of the most useful plants... from drawings taken from life. London: Samuel Hading, 1737[-?1739]. 2 volumes, 2 (365 x 23 mm). 28pp. letterpress descriptive text to plates 1-56, otherwise engraved throughout, two titles, five dedicatory leaves, one leaf commendation from the Royal College of Physicians, one leaf of 'English index', 2 leaves 'Catalogus Plantarum..', 111 leaves of explanatory text and 500 hand-coloured plates. (Occasional browning and spotting, vertical creases to titles and final leaf in vol.II.) Contemporary diced russia gilt, (extremities worn).
FIRST EDITION. One of the first English botanical books to be issued in parts, 125 parts, the work published 2s per part coloured, 1s uncoloured. Its bibliographical history is complicated; in "there is no uniformity with regard to the number of dedications contained in the various issues, or in the order in which the preliminary leaves are arranged" (Henrey), and the work's publishing history is not fully understood. The present copy appears to be an early issue: both titles are dated 1737, and the 'vol.2' on vol.II title is printed and not altered in manuscript. However the presence of the letterpress descriptive leaves has, in the past, been taken to indicate that vol.I is a later issue second edition. An alternative in this case is that the letterpress leaves represent an early and quickly abandoned experiment.
Elizabeth Blackwell undertook the work with the encouragement of various eminent members of the medical profession and with the intention of paying off her husband Alexander's debts. She took a house opposite the Chelsea Physic Garden, at 4, Swan Walk, at the suggestion of Isaac Reed, in order to draw and engrave the plants. Her husband helped by supplying the common names of the plants in various languages. The work was a success and she achieved her object. She accompanied her husband to Sweden where he was employed as an agricultural expert (Linnaeus visited him in 1746), unfortunately he became envolved in politics, was arrested and eventually beheaded on 29 July 1747, for his part in a conspiracy to alter the Swedish succession. Elizabeth, who died in 1758, is buried in the churchyard of Chelsea Old church. Cf. Henrey 450-453; cf. Lisney 172-180. (2)
