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Details
JAN BAREND ELWE (PUBLISHER)
Nederlandsch bloemwerk. Door een Gezelschap geleerden. Amsterdam: J.B. Elwe, 1794. 4° (283 x 218mm). 2pp. subscribers list. Engraved title with large hand-coloured floral vignette by H.L. Myling after P.T. van Brussel. 51 hand-coloured engraved plates. Contemporary Dutch half calf, the flat spine divided into six compartments by horizontal decorative rolls flanked by single fillets, gilt red morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment (spine chipped at head, light scuffing to extremities).
THE PLESCH COPY OF THIS IMPORTANT AND BEAUTIFUL WORK, ILLUSTRATED WITH 'DELIGHTFUL TULIPS, HYACINTHS AND AURICULAS' (Blunt). THE WORK IS 'A SYMBOL AND REPRESENTATION OF THE ASCENDANCY OF DUTCH NURSERYMAN [...] AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY' (Hunt). The breeding and distribution of tulips, hyacinths and auriculas was the most lucrative area of horticulture during much of the eighteenth century, and by the closing decades the Dutch were the acknowledged leaders in this field. The present work was produced as a sampler of the wide range of varieties that were available, but it also 'takes a backward glance at the art of the gardener and the flower-painter of a century and a half earlier [...] Although the plates vary in quality, as a whole they are charming [...] Nissen and Plesch [...] assign the plates to Paul Theodor van Brussel (1754-1795), though he signs only the titlepage bouquet. The three plates at the outset make a pleasing addition to our gallery of named varieties of the double hyacinth [...] And the named tulips and auriculas are similarly acceptable. Yet the aesthetic delight of the book lies more in its copies of early plates [...] thirty plates are close copies of those by Nicolas Robert (1614-1685) [...] in Variae ac multiformes florum species ... (Paris [1660?])' (Hunt). These plates, after the most celebrated botanical artist of the seventeenth century, provide a link between the horticultural world of the late eighteenth century and the earlier golden age of 'Tulipomania'. Arnold Arboretum pp.512-513; Blunt & Stearn The Art of Botanical Illustration (1994) p.190; Dunthorne 215; Hunt 733; Nissen BBI 2219.
Nederlandsch bloemwerk. Door een Gezelschap geleerden. Amsterdam: J.B. Elwe, 1794. 4° (283 x 218mm). 2pp. subscribers list. Engraved title with large hand-coloured floral vignette by H.L. Myling after P.T. van Brussel. 51 hand-coloured engraved plates. Contemporary Dutch half calf, the flat spine divided into six compartments by horizontal decorative rolls flanked by single fillets, gilt red morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment (spine chipped at head, light scuffing to extremities).
THE PLESCH COPY OF THIS IMPORTANT AND BEAUTIFUL WORK, ILLUSTRATED WITH 'DELIGHTFUL TULIPS, HYACINTHS AND AURICULAS' (Blunt). THE WORK IS 'A SYMBOL AND REPRESENTATION OF THE ASCENDANCY OF DUTCH NURSERYMAN [...] AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY' (Hunt). The breeding and distribution of tulips, hyacinths and auriculas was the most lucrative area of horticulture during much of the eighteenth century, and by the closing decades the Dutch were the acknowledged leaders in this field. The present work was produced as a sampler of the wide range of varieties that were available, but it also 'takes a backward glance at the art of the gardener and the flower-painter of a century and a half earlier [...] Although the plates vary in quality, as a whole they are charming [...] Nissen and Plesch [...] assign the plates to Paul Theodor van Brussel (1754-1795), though he signs only the titlepage bouquet. The three plates at the outset make a pleasing addition to our gallery of named varieties of the double hyacinth [...] And the named tulips and auriculas are similarly acceptable. Yet the aesthetic delight of the book lies more in its copies of early plates [...] thirty plates are close copies of those by Nicolas Robert (1614-1685) [...] in Variae ac multiformes florum species ... (Paris [1660?])' (Hunt). These plates, after the most celebrated botanical artist of the seventeenth century, provide a link between the horticultural world of the late eighteenth century and the earlier golden age of 'Tulipomania'. Arnold Arboretum pp.512-513; Blunt & Stearn The Art of Botanical Illustration (1994) p.190; Dunthorne 215; Hunt 733; Nissen BBI 2219.
Provenance
Arpad Plesch (1890-1974, bookplate), sale; Sotheby's, London, 18 November 1975, lot 566 (to S. Patch).
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 20 October 1988, lot 73 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C. R. Dreesmann (inventory no. Y-42).
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 20 October 1988, lot 73 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C. R. Dreesmann (inventory no. Y-42).
Special notice
Christie's charges a Buyer's premium calculated at 20.825% of the hammer price for each lot with a value up to €90,000. If the hammer price of a lot exceeds €90,000 then the premium for the lot is calculated at 20.825% of the first €90,000 plus 11.9% of any amount in excess of €90,000. Buyer's Premium is calculated on this basis for each lot individually.
Sale room notice
Please note that this copy contains all 53 plates called for, and not 51 as stated in the catalogue.