Lot 48: John Frederick Miller (1715-ca.1790)

Illustratio systematis sexualis Linnaei... An Illustration of the sexual system of Linnaeus. London: published and sold by the author, [1770-]1777. 1 volume in two, 2o (522 x 356mm). 1p. letterpress subscriber's list, parallel preface and text in Latin and English. Engraved emblematic frontispiece, 2 engraved titles ('vol.II' added in contemporary ink manuscript to title in second volume), 4 hand-coloured engraved plates of leaf forms, 104 fine engraved plates by Miller, each in two states printed in brown before letters and coloured by hand; and printed in black, with letters and uncoloured, with an additional plate and letterpress leaf of description in vol.I "Classis XIII Ordo.III... Thea", the plate printed in brown, with letters and hand-coloured. (Without the 2pp. errata found in some copies, fourth text leaf in first volume shaved with slight loss, three plates with some flaking of green pigmentation, occasional light soiling and offsetting of plates onto text.) Contemporary diced russia gilt, covers with wide decorative borders tooled in gilt and blind (rebacked and cornered, later endpapers). Provenance : Thomas Wythe (stencilled armorial on verso of frontispiece, partially erased manuscript note of original cost). First edition of "An immense work of botany wherein the pencil of Miller illustrated, in a style of unprecedented elegance, the sexual system of Linnaeus" (J.C. Lettson Memoirs of John Fothergill [1789] p.106). "John Miller, otherwise Johann Sebastian Mueller... was a native of Nrnberg. He came to... [England] in 1744 and remained here until his death which took place in London. He was a botanical artist and engraver of considerable note. Besides the figures of plants in the above publication of 1770-7, many examples of his work are to be found in Philip Miller's Figures of the most beautiful... plants.. (1755-60), Hunter's edition (1776) of Evelyn's Sylva, and Lord Bute's Botanical tables (1785?)." (Henrey. British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800 II, p.279). For the present work Miller worked chiefly from specimens in the garden of John Fothergill at Upton in Essex. The botanical aspects of the plates were overseen initially by Gowan Knight (1713-1772), the first Principal Librarian of the Britiah Museam and a friend of Fothergill's. The plates were issued both coloured and uncoloured, the latter, for scientific purposes, were published with letters, the former for aesthetic reasons were published without. The work appeared in twenty parts from 1770 to 1777 to 85 subscribers (who ordered 105 sets). Linnaeus was sent samples of the work for his approval and responded enthusiastically, describing the plates as more beautiful and accurate than any seen since the beginning of the world. BM(NH) III,p.1370; Bradley I,p.258; Dunthorne 206; Great Flower Books p.68; Henrey III, 1153; Nissen BBI 1372; Stafleu & Cowan 6482. (2).