A Decade of Curious and elegant Trees and Plants: drawn after Specimens received from the East Indies, and America, in the year 1772.

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Folio (19 x 13 in.; 48.3 x 33 cm). 10 exceptionally fine engraved and numbered botanical plates with full contemporary handcoloring; faint dampstaining to fore-edges of plates 1-2 and quire B text, plates 8-10 and quire F partially loose at bottom. Nineteenth-century half calf, marbled boards; boards a bit scuffed, upper joint split but holding. FIRST EDITION OF THIS RARE WORK- "OUTSTANDING FOR SOME EXTREMELY DECORATIVE DESIGNS" (Henrey). In nearly the past 75 years, only seven copies have sold at auction, and we have located only nine copies in institutions. The plates, which are unsigned, are identified by their vernacular names as well as by their binominal nomenclature: 1. The Cornucopian Shrub (Copianthus Indica); 2. The Upright Lima Lilly (Alstromeria Pelegrina); 3. The Rose-Apple (Dillenia Indica); 4. Sensible Wood-Sorrel (Oxalis Sensitiva); 7. Venus Flytrap (Dionaea Muscipula); 8. Crimson Mountain Ebony (Bauhinia Purpurea); 9. The Lustre Vine (Cerepegia Candelabrum); 10. Yellow American Water-Lilly (Nymphea). Sir John Hill was an English composer, actor, author, physician, and botanist. He contributed to contemporary periodicals and engaged in caustic battles with poets, playwrights, and scientists. He is best remembered for his illustrated botanical compendium The Vegetable System, one of the first works to use the nomenclature of Carl Linnaeus. In recognition of his efforts, he was created a knight of the Order of Vasa in 1774 by Gustav III of Sweden and thereafter called himself Sir John Hill. "[I]n 1760 he participated in the groundbreaking work for what was to become the great botanical garden of Kew, and also worked as a gardener at Kensington Palace" (Oak Spring Flora). REFERENCES: Nissen BBI 878; Great Flower Books, p. 59; Henrey 804; Plesch sale, (Sotheby's London, 17 November 1975, lot 350); Pritzel 4076; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 2775; cf. Oak Spring Flora, p. 197 PROVENANCE: François-César Le Tellier, Marquis de Courtanvaux, 1718-1781 (library stamp on title-page and verso of plate 10); Carleton R. Richmond (armorial bookplate with motto "Resolve Well and Persevere). N° de ref. del artículo 72nhr207

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