Unpaginated atlas, hand-coloured lithographic title page, 8 hand-coloured lithographic plates and 1 hand-coloured vignette at the bottom of the last page of text, each plate accompanied by a two-page letterpress description and notes by William Harvey, list of subscribers.
Original light brown cloth, titled gilt on the upper cover within a gilt floral surround, gilt decorated borders which are repeated on the back in blind, new leather spine and corners. The plates and text which are printed on special paper have been mounted album-style with linen hinges – one slightly obscures the caption of the plate (the original binding was made with gutta-percha – a latex solution derived from the Palaquium tree – which over time dries and cracks. Almost all books bound in this way in the 19th century now need the attention of a bookbinder), the first plate, Sparaxis Pendula, is lightly foxed, the other plates are clean and bright (the guard leaves are lightly foxed).
This scarce floral album was produced in a very small edition. The list of subscribers, headed by Queen Victoria, consists of only 103 names who ordered 110 copies. The fine quality paper was specially made for the publication and the illustrations were lithographed by P. Gauci. The volume is dedicated to the Swedish botanist D. Wallich who took the original paintings to England and showed them to Sir William Hooker at Kew who, much struck by their beauty and accuracy, arranged for their publication.
A printed leaf bound in at the end of this copy reproduces a detailed description of the album from Hooker’s Journal of Botany and New Garden Miscellany, April 1850. A footnote states,’The name is modestly withheld throughout the whole of the work; but on the authority of the ‘Botanical Magazine,’ under Roupella grata (vol. lxxxiv, tab. 4466) we are enabled to say that these admirable drawings are the work of the Lady of Thomas Boone Roupell, Esq., a gentleman now in high service in the Civil Service of the East India Company, on the Madras Establishment.’
It also includes acknowledgements from the President of the Royal Botanical Society of Germany, the Secretary of the Royal Institution, London and the President of the Royal Horticultural Society of England thanking Mrs Roupell for copies she donated to these institutions. It is unknown why this sheet was printed (it is on poor quality paper and is heavily foxed) but it confirms that the edition of was larger, if only be a few copies, than the 110 derived from the names printed in the list of subscribers.
Privately published. Printed by W. Nicol, Shakespeare, Press, Pall Mall, MDCCCXLIX (1849).
- Size: Folio (590 x 465 mm)
- Sold By: Clarke's Africana & Rare Books
- Contact Person: Paul Mills
- Country: South Africa
- Email: [email protected]
- Telephone: 021 794 0600
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- Trade Associations: ABA - ILAB, SABDA
