Details
MUNTING, ABRAHAM. Naauwkeurige Beschyving der Aardgewassen, waar in de veelerley aart en bijzondere eigenschappen der boomen, heesters, kruyden, bloemen. Leiden and Utrecht: Pieter vander Aa and François Halma, 1696.
Folio, 393 x 255 mm., contemporary Dutch blind-stamped vellum over pasteboards, sides panelled with central arabesque cartouche, joints cracked, somewhat soiled, endpapers renewed, soft crease to engraved title, more severe creasing to letterpress title, 5-inch repaired tear to lower fore-corner of "Palmaria" plate, very light spotting or faint discoloration affecting approximately 35 plates.
FIRST EDITION, half-title, additional engraved title, letterpress title in red and black with engraved vignette, double column, engraved head-pieces and large repeated tail-piece, title by J. Baptiste Monnoyer after J. Goeree, 243 etched and engraved plates of flowering plants, many set above landscape backgrounds, others within elaborate vases, the Latin names engraved on scrolls and tablets, woodcut initials.
First edition of an expanded version of Munting's less copiously illustrated Waare offening der planten (1672). The masterfully engraved plates "are as curious as their subjects. They commonly present the plants far larger than life, oranges huge as pumpkins, cylcamens with heavy corms floating lightly in mid-air, genteel geraniums grown into giant trees. The effect is obtained through sketching in classical or idyllic or mountainous little landscapes below" (Hunt, II, p. 6). All but one of the plates are unsigned, the exception being plate 201, signed by J. Mulder, "presumably the Joseph Mulder who engraved plates for Merian's Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1705)" (op cit.), who was probably responsible for all or most of the remaining Munting plates.
Hunt I, 396; Nissen BBI 1428.
Provenance: Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library, shelf-mark label with cancel stamp (sale, Sotheby's London, 25 June 1963, lot ) -- Robert de Belder (sale, Sotheby's London, 28 April 1987, lot 252).
Folio, 393 x 255 mm., contemporary Dutch blind-stamped vellum over pasteboards, sides panelled with central arabesque cartouche, joints cracked, somewhat soiled, endpapers renewed, soft crease to engraved title, more severe creasing to letterpress title, 5-inch repaired tear to lower fore-corner of "Palmaria" plate, very light spotting or faint discoloration affecting approximately 35 plates.
FIRST EDITION, half-title, additional engraved title, letterpress title in red and black with engraved vignette, double column, engraved head-pieces and large repeated tail-piece, title by J. Baptiste Monnoyer after J. Goeree, 243 etched and engraved plates of flowering plants, many set above landscape backgrounds, others within elaborate vases, the Latin names engraved on scrolls and tablets, woodcut initials.
First edition of an expanded version of Munting's less copiously illustrated Waare offening der planten (1672). The masterfully engraved plates "are as curious as their subjects. They commonly present the plants far larger than life, oranges huge as pumpkins, cylcamens with heavy corms floating lightly in mid-air, genteel geraniums grown into giant trees. The effect is obtained through sketching in classical or idyllic or mountainous little landscapes below" (Hunt, II, p. 6). All but one of the plates are unsigned, the exception being plate 201, signed by J. Mulder, "presumably the Joseph Mulder who engraved plates for Merian's Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1705)" (op cit.), who was probably responsible for all or most of the remaining Munting plates.
Hunt I, 396; Nissen BBI 1428.
Provenance: Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library, shelf-mark label with cancel stamp (sale, Sotheby's London, 25 June 1963, lot ) -- Robert de Belder (sale, Sotheby's London, 28 April 1987, lot 252).