Description
Captain Cook's Florilegium. A Selection of Engravings from the Drawings of Plants collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on Captain Cook's first Voyage to the Islands of the Pacific, with Accounts of the Voyage by Wilfrid Blunt and of the Botanical Explorations and Prints by William T. Stearn. Lion and Unicorn Press, 1973. Large folio, number 8 of 10 copies, a Subscriber's copy [Subscriber no 8, Dr. J.A. Watt], 42 engraved plates, text printed in purple, green, red, blue, brown and black, text and plates printed on Crisbrooke handmade paper, binding of Nigerian goatskin with solid gilt edges, designed by Joy Law, hand tooled in 22-carat gold leaf, with gilt stamps of Drosera uniflora from Tierra del Fuego as fleurons, and silk doublures by Zaehnsdorf Limited, with a specimen of Banksia integrifolia (plate 25), gathered at Botany Bay by R.G. Coveny in December 1973, encapsulated in acrylic by David Watkins as part of the upper cover, watered silk endpapers, in a green velvet lined folding green cloth box, morocco gilt lettering piece to upper cover, slight crystallisation at extreme edge of acryllic window, otherwise very fine
Footnote
Note: A magnificent de luxe edition. Apart from its sumptuous binding incorporating a specimen of Banskia integrifolia in a panel inset into the front cover, this edition, limited to 10 copies, also has 42 plates, twelve more than the "standard" edition of the same year which itself was limited to only 100 copies for subscribers. Both editions were fully subscribed long before publication date.
The work is of importance as its publication reproduces for the first time some of the engraved plates of Australian plants made under the supervision of Sir Joseph Banks. Apart from a proof impression no prints were made from the plates selected here for publication, the original copper-engraved plates, the original drawings, the specimens used for the drawings and the proof impressions all being held by the British Museum. In the 1960s it was decided that the Royal College of Art should print a selection of the most beautiful plates. The superbly printed rich impressions in strong black ink make this one of the finest botanical books produced in the twentieth century.
The ten subscribers to the special edition of Captain Cook's Florilegium are listed on a sheet loosely inserted as: 1) Howard Radcylffe Esq., 2) The Peabody Museum, Salem, 3) Paul Mellon Esq., 4) P.L. Bradfer-Lawrence Esq., 5) Hunt Botanical Library, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 6) George Howard Esq., 7) Nicholas Poole-Wilson Esq., 8) Dr. John A. Watt, 9) Lessing J. Rosenwald Esq., 10) Mrs A. Lester Marks.