Charles Henry Bellenden Ker (1785?-1871)] Icones Plantarum spontè China nascentium; è bibliotheca braamiana excerptae. London: J.H.Bohte, 1821. 2° (482 x 337mm). Letterpress title (verso blank) and 1p.text (verso blank). 30 hand-coloured plates by or after Ker (7 engravings, 23 lithographs), 20 with manuscript identification notes by H.F. Hance. (Title and verso of final plate reinforced with tape at inner blank margin, library stamp to head of title and foot of final plate, 15th plate with light old crease marks, small section of lower outer blank corner of 27th plate torn away.) Original cloth, letterpress title label on upper cover (rebacked, old soiling and discolouration to covers), modern green cloth box. Provenance : Henry Fletcher Hance (1827-1886, botanist, signatures and manuscript notes) -- Brigadier General Samuel B. Holabird (1826-1907, U.S. Army Quartermaster General, bookplate, obscured by bookplate for:) -- Holabird Collection, Fort Sheridan Library, Illinois, (bookplate and stamps). THE HANCE-HOLABIRD COPY. FIRST EDITION, SECOND ISSUE, OF A RARE WORK ON CHINESE PLANTS WITH AN IMPORTANT PROVENANCE. Charles Ker, the son of the botanist John Ker (1765?-1842), is now best remembered for his work as a legal reformer but throughout his life he pursued his interest in botany in general and orchids in particular (he was one of the first private growers of orchids in this country). His plates in the present work are based on the Chinese drawings collected by A.E. van Braam-Houckgeest (described in Stanton's An Authentic Account of the Embassy... to... China [1798], vol.II, pp.297-324) which were made available to Ker by William Cattley (1787-1835, himself a keen orchid grower and patron of John Lindley) who had acquired the collection. The first issue of 1818 is known from only three copies, one of which is now missing. Of this second issue, only four copies are listed as having been sold at auction in the past 25 years including the Plesch and de Belder copy, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society copy and the Hunt copy (incomplete). This copy includes notes by H.F. Hance, an important figure in the history of western botanical research in China. 20 of the plates include marginal annotations by Hance identifying the plants by their binomials, two of these identifications have his initials. Hance was a civil servant, he served in Hong Kong, Canton, Whampoa and finally Amoy, where he died of fever in June 1886. Sir Joseph Hooker said of him 'With regard to Dr. Hance's botanical attainments and the value of his labours, I can speak in very high terms. For upwards of forty years he devoted all his spare time to investigating the vegetation of China, displaying rare ability in mastering the technicalities of structural and descriptive botany.' BM(NH) I, p.345; Dunthorne 163; Great Flower Books p.62; cf.Nissen BBI 1036; cf.Stafleu and Cowan 3583.
Charles Henry Bellenden Ker (1785?-1871)] Icones Plantarum spontè China nascentium; è bibliotheca braamiana excerptae. London: J.H.Bohte, 1821. 2° (482 x 337mm). Letterpress title (verso blank) and 1p.text (verso blank). 30 hand-coloured plates by or after Ker (7 engravings, 23 lithographs), 20 with manuscript identification notes by H.F. Hance. (Title and verso of final plate reinforced with tape at inner blank margin, library stamp to head of title and foot of final plate, 15th plate with light old crease marks, small section of lower outer blank corner of 27th plate torn away.) Original cloth, letterpress title label on upper cover (rebacked, old soiling and discolouration to covers), modern green cloth box. Provenance : Henry Fletcher Hance (1827-1886, botanist, signatures and manuscript notes) -- Brigadier General Samuel B. Holabird (1826-1907, U.S. Army Quartermaster General, bookplate, obscured by bookplate for:) -- Holabird Collection, Fort Sheridan Library, Illinois, (bookplate and stamps). THE HANCE-HOLABIRD COPY. FIRST EDITION, SECOND ISSUE, OF A RARE WORK ON CHINESE PLANTS WITH AN IMPORTANT PROVENANCE. Charles Ker, the son of the botanist John Ker (1765?-1842), is now best remembered for his work as a legal reformer but throughout his life he pursued his interest in botany in general and orchids in particular (he was one of the first private growers of orchids in this country). His plates in the present work are based on the Chinese drawings collected by A.E. van Braam-Houckgeest (described in Stanton's An Authentic Account of the Embassy... to... China [1798], vol.II, pp.297-324) which were made available to Ker by William Cattley (1787-1835, himself a keen orchid grower and patron of John Lindley) who had acquired the collection. The first issue of 1818 is known from only three copies, one of which is now missing. Of this second issue, only four copies are listed as having been sold at auction in the past 25 years including the Plesch and de Belder copy, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society copy and the Hunt copy (incomplete). This copy includes notes by H.F. Hance, an important figure in the history of western botanical research in China. 20 of the plates include marginal annotations by Hance identifying the plants by their binomials, two of these identifications have his initials. Hance was a civil servant, he served in Hong Kong, Canton, Whampoa and finally Amoy, where he died of fever in June 1886. Sir Joseph Hooker said of him 'With regard to Dr. Hance's botanical attainments and the value of his labours, I can speak in very high terms. For upwards of forty years he devoted all his spare time to investigating the vegetation of China, displaying rare ability in mastering the technicalities of structural and descriptive botany.' BM(NH) I, p.345; Dunthorne 163; Great Flower Books p.62; cf.Nissen BBI 1036; cf.Stafleu and Cowan 3583.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
