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Details
PIERRE-JOSEPH REDOUTÉ (1759-1840)
Choix des plus belles fleurs et des plus beaux fruits. Text by D.M.Guillemain. Paris: Ernest Panckoucke, [n.d. but 1833 or later]. 4° (340 x 240mm). 144 fine stipple-engraved plates, printed in colours and finished by hand, by Langlois, Bessin, Chapuy and Victor after Redouté. (Tagetes plate with 75mm. neatly repaired tear just affecting imprint and titling, Iris Xiphium plate with neatly repaired tears at the plate mark and just touching the image, seven other plates with small tears, the majority neatly repaired, occasional light unobtrusive discolouration to plates.) Modern calf-backed marbled paper boards, the flat spine tooled and lettered in gilt and blind.
AN EXCELLENT COPY OF THIS SELECTION OF REDOUTé'S FINEST PLATES OF FLOWERS AND FRUITS, AND THE LAST OF THE THREE GREAT WORKS PUBLISHED UNDER HIS NAME. The Liliacées was published between 1802 and 1816, the Roses 1817 and 1824, and finally the present work, originally issued in parts between May 1827 and June 1833. Redouté had originally intended the work to consist of only 100 plates in 25 parts but continued to 36. This first edition was issued in quarto (as here, 12frs. per part) as well as a small number of folio copies (24frs. per part). Another edition was issued from 1829, and the present undated issue was made available from 1833 with an altered title and some additional text by Guillemain.
The splendid plates, generally titled in French with a Latin binomial, include 16 fruit prints ("amongst the most beautiful of all fruit prints" [Dunthorne]), 16 roses, 9 mixed bouquets, and fine groupings of prints of lilies, camellias, irises and peonies as well as examples of most of the more beautiful and exotic flowers available at the time. The Choix.. amply demonstrate Redouté's mastery of the coloured stipple-engraving: a printing method which he introduced to France and to the representation of botanical specimens. He had learned the technique, over thirty years earlier, from Francesco Bartolozzi while visiting England and Kew Gardens with L'Hériter de Brutelle. It allowed a fineness of colour and line which previously could not be achieved using conventional hand-colouring and engraving, and, arguably, has not been matched since.
Dunthorne 235; Great Flower Books p.72; Hunt Redoutéana 20; Nissen BBI 1591; Pritzel 7456; Stafleu & Cowan 8750.
Choix des plus belles fleurs et des plus beaux fruits. Text by D.M.Guillemain. Paris: Ernest Panckoucke, [n.d. but 1833 or later]. 4° (340 x 240mm). 144 fine stipple-engraved plates, printed in colours and finished by hand, by Langlois, Bessin, Chapuy and Victor after Redouté. (Tagetes plate with 75mm. neatly repaired tear just affecting imprint and titling, Iris Xiphium plate with neatly repaired tears at the plate mark and just touching the image, seven other plates with small tears, the majority neatly repaired, occasional light unobtrusive discolouration to plates.) Modern calf-backed marbled paper boards, the flat spine tooled and lettered in gilt and blind.
AN EXCELLENT COPY OF THIS SELECTION OF REDOUTé'S FINEST PLATES OF FLOWERS AND FRUITS, AND THE LAST OF THE THREE GREAT WORKS PUBLISHED UNDER HIS NAME. The Liliacées was published between 1802 and 1816, the Roses 1817 and 1824, and finally the present work, originally issued in parts between May 1827 and June 1833. Redouté had originally intended the work to consist of only 100 plates in 25 parts but continued to 36. This first edition was issued in quarto (as here, 12frs. per part) as well as a small number of folio copies (24frs. per part). Another edition was issued from 1829, and the present undated issue was made available from 1833 with an altered title and some additional text by Guillemain.
The splendid plates, generally titled in French with a Latin binomial, include 16 fruit prints ("amongst the most beautiful of all fruit prints" [Dunthorne]), 16 roses, 9 mixed bouquets, and fine groupings of prints of lilies, camellias, irises and peonies as well as examples of most of the more beautiful and exotic flowers available at the time. The Choix.. amply demonstrate Redouté's mastery of the coloured stipple-engraving: a printing method which he introduced to France and to the representation of botanical specimens. He had learned the technique, over thirty years earlier, from Francesco Bartolozzi while visiting England and Kew Gardens with L'Hériter de Brutelle. It allowed a fineness of colour and line which previously could not be achieved using conventional hand-colouring and engraving, and, arguably, has not been matched since.
Dunthorne 235; Great Flower Books p.72; Hunt Redoutéana 20; Nissen BBI 1591; Pritzel 7456; Stafleu & Cowan 8750.