Lot 317: REITTER, Johann Daniel von (1759-1811) and Gottlieb Friedrich ABEL (b.1763). Abbildung der

REITTER, Johann Daniel von (1759-1811) and Gottlieb Friedrich ABEL (b.1763). Abbildung der hundert deutschen wilden Holz-Arten nach dem Numern-Verzeichnis im Forst-Handbuch von F.A.L. von Burgsdorf. Als eine Beilage zu diesem Werke, heraus gegeben und Sr. Durchlaucht dem regierenden Herrn Herzog von Wirtemberg unterthänigst zugeeignet. Stuttgart: Drukerei der Herzoglichen Hohen Karls-Schule, 1790[-1794].

4 parts in one volume, 4° (283 x 230mm). 2-leaf subscribers' list and 3-leaves of addenda to the subscribers' list. 100 hand-coloured engraved plates, many heightened with gum arabic, by and after G.F. Abel. (Occasional spotting or marking, some light browning and offsetting, plate 78 somewhat browned.) Contemporary half mottled roan over marbled paper boards, flat spine gilt in compartments, glazed paper lettering-piece in one, others with a gilt motif of a bird at a fountain, patterned endpapers (extremities a little rubbed, upper hinge split). Provenance: Fr Dominicus Erlacher (early engraved booklabels on upper pastedown and final subscribers' leaf) -- binomials neatly amended in pencil on plates 3, 4, and 98 -- numbering of letterpress descriptions for plates XC-XCIX corrected -- [Christie's NY, An Important Botanical Library, 4 June 1997, lot 126].

FIRST EDITION OF REITTER'S RARE WORK, ILLUSTRATED WITH ABEL'S FINE PLATES OF FOREST TREES AND SHRUBS. The text provides a cross-reference to Friedrich August von Burgsdorff's Anleitung zur sichern Erziehung und zweckmässigen Anpflanzung der einheimischen und fremden Holzarten, welche in Deutschland... fortkommen (Berlin: 1787), also a key to each of the plates which are titled beneath each subject with their Latin binomial and the common name in German. Abel's plates are remarkable for the use of shadows, which are employed to lift the samples from the page and to further the illusion of reality. Arnold Arboretum p. 591; BM(NH) IV, p. 1,677; Great Flower Books (1990), p. 132; Nissen BBI 1617; Pritzel 7533; Stafleu and Cowan 8971 (calling for 8 rather than 14 preliminaries).

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