Dipsacaceae, botanical prints, Antiquariaat Jan Meemelink, antiquarian flower books + prints

		Dipsacaceae
		*Scabiosa arvensis* From: Flora batava by Jan Kops and others.

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Dipsacaceae - Dipsacus fullonum From: English botany; or, coloured figures of British plants by James Edward Smith. London, R. Taylor, J. Sowerby, etc., 1809, volume 29, plate 2080. Hand-coloured engraving by James Sowerby (sheet 145 x 237 mm; impression 99 x 178 mm). Text enclosed. Upper margin partly waterstained. € 55 "One of the most celebrated of all British floras is Sowerby’s English botany. This periodical publication, issued in 267 numbers, and published in thirty-six volumes between 1790 and 1814, contains 2,592 beautifully coloured illustrations of plants most of which are drawn and engraved by James Sowerby. The plates are accompanied by descriptive letterpress written by the eminent botanist James Edward Smith, …" (Henrey II p. 141). James Sowerby, who was the first of several members of this family who became noted as authors and illustrators of books on natural history, lived from 1757-1822. He studied painting at the Royal Academy, and soon turned to botanical illustration. His first work was for William Curtis’s Flora londinensis and his Botanical magazine. * Pritzel 8789; Dunthorne 291; Blunt pp. 190-192; Nissen BBI 2225; Great flower books p. 76; Hunt 717; Henrey 1366; Stafleu & Cowan 12.221.
Dipsacaceae - Morina longifolia From: Annales de la Société royale d’Agriculture et de Botanique de Gand, Journal d’horticulture by Charles Morren (editor). Gand [Gent], Local de la Société (Casino), etc., 1847, volume 3, plate 127. Hand-coloured lithograph (sheet 169 x 258 mm). Text enclosed. € 50 Belgian horticultural journal, published from 1845-1849 by the Royal Agricultural and Botanical Society of Gent, organizer of the famous flower shows in Gent, Gentse Floraliën, since 1809. Started and edited by Charles Morren at the same time as the more successful competitor Flore des serres et des jardins de l’Europe of the nurseryman Louis van Houtte. * Nissen BBI 2212; Great flower books p. 84.
Dipsacaceae - Scabiosa arvensis From: Flora batava by Jan Kops and others. Amsterdam, J.C. Sepp, 1807, volume 2, plate 121. Hand-coloured engraving (sheet 225 x 278 mm). Text enclosed. € 225 The Flora batava, a monumental work forming a beautifully illustrated survey of all indigenous plants in the Netherlands. It was started in 1800 by Jan Kops, a Dutch agronomist and professor of botany at Utrecht. The first 10 volumes constitute all that was prepared and issued under his supervision. When finished at last in 1934, Willem Jan Lütjeharms was the editor for volume 28, in which he concludes that this work has ended now and that publication took longer than any comparable foreign flora: "De Flora Batava heeft langer geleefd dan een der met dit werk vergelijkbare buitenlandsche plaatwerken." The long publication period reflects the change in the technique of its illustrations. Initially copper-engravings were used, followed by lithographs, all coloured by hand, but from volume 25 colour-printing was gradually introduced. Also several artists were involved, but the plates are not signed, nor much information is given about them. Most plates in the first 3 volumes were illustrated by Georg Jacob Johann van Os. He was born in 1782 in The Hague and settled in Paris in 1826, where he worked for the Sèvres porcelain factory and was a painter of flower and fruit pieces, still lifes, etc. These early, finely engraved plates are exquisitely coloured by hand. Each plate is accompanied by a text in Dutch and French. The first publisher, J.C. Sepp en Zoon, was renowned for its scientific colour-plate books. The work was issued in 8vo and 4to. This plate is in the most desirable 4to format. * Pritzel 4822; Jackson p. 324; Nissen BBI 2247; Great flower books p. 63; Landwehr 60; Stafleu & Cowan 3874; Sam Segal: Flowers and nature pp. 250-251 (Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os); Johnston 663; A hundred highlights from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek 70.
Dipsacaceae - Scabiosa maritima - Scabiosa atropurpurea fl. pleno From: Flore des serres et des jardins de l’Europe by Charles Lemaire and others. Gand [Gent], Louis van Houtte, 1857, volume 12, plate 1203. Chromolithograph finished by hand (sheet 160 x 240 mm). Text enclosed. € 40 The founder, publisher and part-editor of this lavish Belgian periodical was Louis van Houtte, the propietor of the largest nursery of its time on the continent. It appeared monthly for almost 40 years and was published by his own printing office in the middle of the gardens, the Horto van Houtteano. All the plants shown were for sale in his nursery and include many exotics. The work is notable for the craftmanship of the Belgian lithographers Severeyns, Stroobant and De Pannemaker, who had mastered the art of colour-printing from stone. * Nissen BBI 2254; Great flower books p. 84; Stafleu & Cowan 15.921.
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