Lot 315: OEDER, Georg Christian (1728-1791) [vols. I-III], Otto Frederik MÜLLER (1730-1784) [vols. IV-V]

OEDER, Georg Christian (1728-1791) [vols. I-III], Otto Frederik MÜLLER (1730-1784) [vols. IV-V], Martin VAHL (1749-1804) [vols. VI-VII] and Jens Wilken HORNEMANN (1770-1841) [vols. VIII-XI] (editors). [FLORA DANICA]. Icones plantarum spone nascentium in regnis Daniae et Norvegiae... Florae Danicae nomine inscriptium. Copenhagen: 1761-1829.

11 (of 18) volumes in 33 fascicles, 2° (381 x 235mm). Volume titles in red and black, most fascicles with half-titles, 1980 numbered engraved plates, 363 hand-coloured, after Martin Rössler, Friderik Müller and others, on watermarked Honig paper, plates numbered, one with pasted overslip. (A few plates trimmed to platemark, very occasional light spots, a few vols. with traces of dampsoiling at top edge, pl. 1512 with minor marginal tears.) Contemporary papered boards, morocco lettering pieces (some scuffing to head and foot of spines, a few scratches to some boards, final volume with short split to upper joint). Provenance: Coburg, Eckart Botanical Library (library stamp on title versos, dated 1820) -- [?Johann Baptist Wiesbaur (1836-1906), Kalksburg] (erased ownership inscriptions to several titles; ms. note bound in before plate 810).

THE FIRST ELEVEN VOLUMES OF THIS GREAT EUROPEAN FLORA, WITH PLATES IN EXTREMELY FINE CONDITION. One of 'the finest national floras ever compiled' (Blunt and Stearn), the Flora Danica was begun by George Christian Oeder, founder of the Royal Botanical Institute in Copenhagen, in 1761. It continued for 122 years, becoming, with its 3240 plates, the most comprehensive illustrated survey of the wild plants of Denmark and its adjacent regions, from the far side of the Elbe to the Artic Sea. Nissen praised the engraved illustrations as the best in their field, combining precise scientific accuracy with great aesthetic merit. Blunt and Stearn note that 'the earlier plates, in particular, are extremely delicately engraved and beautifully coloured'; in the present copy, which comprises plates issued up until 1829, by Rössler, Müller and Bayer, the plates are indeed very finely engraved. Copies were issued both coloured and uncoloured; here 363 plates, mostly those of mushrooms, are very finely coloured by hand. Hunt 594; Nissen BBI 2249; Stafleu and Cowan 7001. (33)

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