Lot 188: WALLICH, NATHANIEL

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Plantae Asiaticae Rariores; or, Descriptions and Figures of a Select Number of Unpublished East Indian Plants. London: Richard Taylor for Treuttel & Würtz, [1829-] 1830-1832

3 volumes, folio (21 x 14 1/4 in.) 295 fine handcolored lithographed plates on 294 sheets by Gauci after Charles M. Curtis, Miss Drake, Gorachand, Vishnu Prasad, and others, folding map of Africa partially colored in outline; volume 2 lacking half-title, faint text offsetting to about 75 plates and map, minor paper discoloration to plates and text, scattered spotting or soiling. Contemporary half green morocco gilt over boards covered in red moiré paper, coated yellow endpapers, edges gilt; extremities rubbed, spines slightly faded, endpapers foxed.

Great Flower Books 149; Dunthorne 326; Nissen BBI 2099; Pritzel 9957; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 16.583

PROPERTY FROM THE BOTANICAL LIBRARY OF EARL L. MURPHY, M. D.

Arpad Plesch (bookplate and sale, Sotheby's London, 16 March 1976, lot 802)

first edition, the plesch copy. Of this magnificent work on Indian plants, only 254 copies were issued. Wallich was the first European to study the plants of Nepal and the countries to the south of the Himalayas. Additionally, from 1817 to 1846 he was superintendant of the botanic garden at Calcutta, where he trained native artists in botanical drawing. Many of these fine Indian draughtsman, including Vishnu Prasad, were employed by Wallich for his magnum opus. "Nearly all the illustrations are so vivid and vigorous that they make most other plant-drawings look insipid by comparison" (Alice M. Coats, The Book of Flowers, p. 109).