Lot 70: TIMOTHY SHELDRAKE (d. 1770)

TIMOTHY SHELDRAKE (d. 1770) Botanicum medicinale: An Herbal of Medicinal Plants on the College of Physicians List. [London: Millan, 1759? ]. 2° (454 x 284mm). All-engraved, 108 hand-coloured plates only by J. Basire and C.H. Hemerich after T. Sheldrake, unnumbered. (Lacking the engraved folding plate entitled ‘The Gardener's best Companion in a Green-House’ and 10 other plates, occasional light marginal soiling.) Contemporary speckled calf (extremities worn, joints cracked). Originally published in parts, with a later issue in 1768? Each plate consists of an etching or engraving of a plant within an oval frame with the name engraved above, and the description and ‘virtues’ below. Copies ‘are often found without a title-page and with fewer plates than 118. It may be assumed that these copies originally belonged to owners who purchased the work in its original parts,’ says Henrey who notes that the fine large paper copy in the Cracherode library (BL) has 108 plates and no title-page. Copies bound from the parts appear not to have been numbered. Henrey 1312; Nissen BBI 1839.