Lot 282
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography
Auction: 31 August 2016 at 12:00 BST
Description
Illustrations of Himalayan Plants. Chiefly Selected From Drawings Made For the Late J.F. Cathcart Esq. of the Bengal Civil Service. The Description and Analyses by J.D. Hooker M.D., F.R.S. The Plates Executed by W.H. Fitch. London: Lovell, Reeve 1855 First Edition, folio (368 x 502mm.), half-title, lithographed title within hand-coloured floral border, 24 hand-coloured lithographed plates by and after W.H. Fitch from drawings by native artists and the author, list of subscribers, modern russet half morocco over purple watered cloth (matching original binding and retaining original boards) gilt title to flat spine (retaining original free endpapers),a few plates with minimal spotting
Footnote
Provenance: 'Kenmure Castle, New Galloway' slip pasted to front free endpaper with ink inscription 'April 15/33 With Every Good Wish From Us All, Jn. S. MacEwan' (the MacEwan family at one time owned Kenmure).
Note: Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century, a close friend of Charles Darwin and one-time director of The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, was educated at Glasgow High School and Glasgow University. Walter Hood Fitch (1817-1892), born in Glasgow, was artist for all the Kew Garden Publications from 1841, and ilustrated many botanical works including: William Hooker's 'A Century of Orchidaceous Plants' (1851) and James Bateman's 'A Monograph of Odontoglossum' (1864-74).