First edition published by The South African Natural History Publication Company in 1964.
Beautiful green full leather binding with gilt lace design around borders. Five raised bands on spine. Gilt page edges. Contents clean. The green leather have some shelf marks, see pictures.
Edition limited to 50 Signed and Numbered copies. Bookplate of I & F.W. Hosken on front pastedown.
The paintings of Arabella Roupell. Text by Allan Bird. Contains a description of the artist's life and 12 of the artist's paintings.
In addition a folder with twelve loose colour plates of the flower pictures in the book itself. All in very good condition.
Arabella Elizabeth Roupell (23 March 1817 & 31 July 1914, Berkshire, was an English flower painter, noted for an anonymous set of flower paintings published in 1849 under the title 'Specimens of the flora of South Africa by a Lady. During her two-year stay in South Africa Roupell painted local flowers. A visitor to the Cape, Nathaniel Wallich, who was at that time in charge of the Calcutta Botanical Garden, and a guest at the same Cape Town hotel as the Roupells, was struck by the quality of her work. Wallich accompanied Roupell on collecting trips to the Cape countryside, and introduced her family to his friends Thomas Maclear, the Cape Astronomer Royal, and his wife Mary, leading to a lasting friendship between the women. Among the others Roupell befriended were Baron von Ludwig, planner and developer of the Botanical Garden in Cape Town, and the Kew plant collector, James Bowie.
- Binding Condition: Very good
- Overall Condition: Good
- Size: 35.5 x 29cm
