Lot 80: WALLICH, Nathaniel (1786-1854). Plantae asiaticae rariores; or, Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian Plants . London: [Richard Taylor for] Treuttel and Würtz, [1829]-1830-1832.

WALLICH, Nathaniel (1786-1854). Plantae asiaticae rariores; or, Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian Plants. London: [Richard Taylor for] Treuttel and Würtz, [1829]-1830-1832.

10 parts (of 12), 2° (547 x 377mm), 246 hand-coloured lithographic plates (of 295, lacking plates 1-50), by M. Gauci and Weddell after Gorchand, Vishnu Prasad, M. Curtis, Miss Drake, and others, plates 222/223 constituting one folding plate, printed by Engelmann, Graf, Coindet & Co., Engelmann & Co., and Graf & Soret, one folding double-page engraved map, seven pieces of epherma loosely inserted, including a series of publisher's ads and a single prospectus leaf for Wallich's unpublished work on east Indian ferns, Filices Asiaticae Rariores. (Lacking parts 1 & 2, some very light marginal creasing to part 3, some text leaves with very light spotting, others very lightly evenly browned.) Original cloth-backed printed wrappers (very light spotting and soiling, slightly more so to the last 3 parts, rear wrapper to last part chipped and frayed at edges with heavier soiling). Provenance: unidentified discreet library labels with ms. classmarks to upper wrappers.

A MAGNIFICENT RENDERING OF INDIAN PLANTS. The work was heavily subsidised by the East India Company, and even employed the same team of artists at the Calcutta botanic garden where Wallich served as director from 1817 to 1846. A LARGE, UNSOPHISTICATED COPY, WITH FRESH, CLEAN PLATES. Arnold Arboretum p. 729; Dunthorne 326 ('many decorative plates all well and carefully drawn'); Great Flower Books (1990) p.149; H. Walter Lack, Ein Garten Eden, Cologne: 2001, 70; Nissen BBI 2099; Pritzel 9957; Stafleu and Cowan 16583. (10)

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