Lot 153: HOOKER, Sir Joseph Dalton (1817-1911) -- Frank STONE, A.R.A. (1800-1859). 'Dr. J.D. Hooker

HOOKER, Sir Joseph Dalton (1817-1911) -- Frank STONE, A.R.A. (1800-1859). 'Dr. J.D. Hooker, F.R.S., in the Rhododendron Valley of the Himalaya Mountains'.

mezzotint (675 x 560mm) by W. Walker after Stone, captioned 'proof' lower left. Framed and glazed in bird's eye maple with trade ticket of W. Boswell & Son. (Trace of light, even browning, a very small perforation near the plate mark.) Provenance: 'Sir William' (presentation inscription on a ticket tipped in the bottom margin between the plate mark and the engraving).

A PRESENTATION, POSSIBLY TO HOOKER'S FATHER, OF THIS EARLY IMPRESSION INSCRIBED BY HOOKER: 'For Sir William most truly yrs Jos. D. Hooker.' It seems very likely that the recipient of this proof portrait was Joseph Hooker's father, Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865). Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker spent several years exploring Sikkim, as well as parts of Nepal and Tibet. Joseph Hooker sent his research notes from Sikkim to his father Sir William, at the time director of Kew Gardens, who edited these for Joseph's The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya (1849). It is 'an important work for both the botanist and horticulturalist since it contains descriptions and plates of many of the best Rhododendron species...and an account of their discovery' (Great Flower Books). Hooker's 'observations on the geology and meteorology of Sikkim are still fundamental, and he explained the terracing of the mountain valleys by the formation of glacial lakes. He succeded in introducing into cultivation through Kew the splendid rhododendrons of Sikkim'(DNB).

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