Lot 289: BANKS, Joseph (1743-1820). Banks' Florilegium ... seven hundred and thirty-eight copperplate engravings of plants collected on Captain James Cook's first voyage round the world in H.M.S. Endeavour 1768-1771. London: Alecto and British Museum,

BANKS, Joseph (1743-1820). Banks' Florilegium ... seven hundred and thirty-eight copperplate engravings of plants collected on Captain James Cook's first voyage round the world in H.M.S. Endeavour 1768-1771. London: Alecto and British Museum, 1980-1990.

33 (of 34) parts + Supplement, broadsheet 2° (785 x 606mm); and Catalogue, 2° (550 x 376mm). 717 (of 738) copper-engraved plates colour printed à la poupée in up to 17 colours from the original plates by Daniel MacKenzie, G. Sibelius, Gabriel Smith et al. after Sydney Parkinson, Frederick Polydore Nodder, John Frederick Miller, James Miller, John Cleveley and Thomas Burgis, in titled window mounts, the Supplement with 5 copper-engraved plates made by the Master Engravers of the Bank of England after the 18th-century proofs pulled from the 5 stolen plates, the Catalogue with 8 uncoloured duplicate plates. (Lacks pt. IX containing plates 181-202, text leaves to pt. V slightly damaged, title to pt. VIII thumb-soiled.) Original cloth-backed portfolios in 34 original green cloth boxes with paper labels (some light scuff marks to boxes); the Catalogue in dark-green morocco-backed boards, top edge gilt.

THE FIRST COMPLETE PRINTING OF THE PLATES, NUMBER 61 OF 100 COPIES. The magnificent drawings of Sydney Parkinson and others had been made in the course of Cook's first voyage from over 800 previously unknown specimens collected by Banks. The plates represent the work of 18 engravers over a period of 13 years, descriptions of the specimens were prepared by Daniel Solander, but Banks's ambition to publish was never realised. On his death, the plates were bequeathed to the British Museum, and the first publication of a substantial selection only occurred in 1900-1905. (35)

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