Details
VENTENAT, Étienne-Pierre (1757-1808)
Jardin de la Malmaison. Paris: Crapelet and Herhan, for the author, 1803-[1805].
First Edition. An exceptional copy in fine, uncut, unsophisticated condition, containing Redouté’s finest botanical illustrations. ‘This series of one hundred and twenty coloured plates, plus... Les Liliacées, constitute the highest peak of Redouté's artistic and botanical achievement; both books are among the most important monuments of botanical illustration ever to be published... This magnificent publication brings Redouté to the top of his artistic career and amply justifies his fame as one of the most eminent botanical illustrators of all time' (Stafleu in Lawrence Redoutéana p.21). The work is a record and celebration of Josephine Bonaparte's garden at Malmaison, where she assembled one of the world's greatest collection of flora. Redouté entered her employment in 1798, the same year as the purchase of the estate just to the west of Paris. To enable her to collect plants on a grand scale Josephine employed a number of distinguished botanists such as Cles and Blaikie to procure specimens, and the task of cataloguing and publishing the collection was overseen by the eminent botanist and librarian of the Panthéon, Étienne-Pierre Ventenat. Ventenat was commissioned to write the text for this, the first work on the Malmaison collection, and Redouté undertook the drawings of the plant specimens. The work was issued in 20 parts over a three-year period. Dunthorne 255; Great Flower Books p.79; I.MacPhail in Lawrence, A Catalogue of Redoutéana exhibited at the Hunt Botanical Library (Pittsburgh: 1963) 12; Nissen BBI 2049; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 16.007.
2 volumes bound in one, broadsheet folio (560 x 370mm). Half-title, title, 2pp. dedication to 'Madame Bonaparte', 120 stipple-engraved plates after Pierre-Joseph Redouté, printed in colours and finished by hand, by J. B. Dien, P. F. Legrand, L. J. Allais, and others, extra-illustrated with a contemporary 2pp. manuscript 'Table Alphabetique' with an original watercolour of a flower spray at the foot of the second page (lacking half-title and title from vol. II as usual when bound as one volume, lacking 2pp. table or errata in vol.II). Contemporary French red half morocco gilt, flat spine divided into compartments by decorative foliage roll, lettered in one, the others with centrally-placed single flower-head tool (lightly rubbed). Provenance: sold Christie’s, New York, 4 June 1997, lot 148.
Special notice
No VAT is payable on the hammer price or the buyer's premium for this lot. Please see the VAT Symbols and Explanation section of the Conditions of Sale for further information
Details
VENTENAT, Étienne-Pierre (1757-1808)
Jardin de la Malmaison. Paris: Crapelet and Herhan, for the author, 1803-[1805].
First Edition. An exceptional copy in fine, uncut, unsophisticated condition, containing Redouté’s finest botanical illustrations. ‘This series of one hundred and twenty coloured plates, plus... Les Liliacées, constitute the highest peak of Redouté's artistic and botanical achievement; both books are among the most important monuments of botanical illustration ever to be published... This magnificent publication brings Redouté to the top of his artistic career and amply justifies his fame as one of the most eminent botanical illustrators of all time' (Stafleu in Lawrence Redoutéana p.21). The work is a record and celebration of Josephine Bonaparte's garden at Malmaison, where she assembled one of the world's greatest collection of flora. Redouté entered her employment in 1798, the same year as the purchase of the estate just to the west of Paris. To enable her to collect plants on a grand scale Josephine employed a number of distinguished botanists such as Cles and Blaikie to procure specimens, and the task of cataloguing and publishing the collection was overseen by the eminent botanist and librarian of the Panthéon, Étienne-Pierre Ventenat. Ventenat was commissioned to write the text for this, the first work on the Malmaison collection, and Redouté undertook the drawings of the plant specimens. The work was issued in 20 parts over a three-year period. Dunthorne 255; Great Flower Books p.79; I.MacPhail in Lawrence, A Catalogue of Redoutéana exhibited at the Hunt Botanical Library (Pittsburgh: 1963) 12; Nissen BBI 2049; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 16.007.
2 volumes bound in one, broadsheet folio (560 x 370mm). Half-title, title, 2pp. dedication to 'Madame Bonaparte', 120 stipple-engraved plates after Pierre-Joseph Redouté, printed in colours and finished by hand, by J. B. Dien, P. F. Legrand, L. J. Allais, and others, extra-illustrated with a contemporary 2pp. manuscript 'Table Alphabetique' with an original watercolour of a flower spray at the foot of the second page (lacking half-title and title from vol. II as usual when bound as one volume, lacking 2pp. table or errata in vol.II). Contemporary French red half morocco gilt, flat spine divided into compartments by decorative foliage roll, lettered in one, the others with centrally-placed single flower-head tool (lightly rubbed). Provenance: sold Christie’s, New York, 4 June 1997, lot 148.
Special notice
No VAT is payable on the hammer price or the buyer's premium for this lot. Please see the VAT Symbols and Explanation section of the Conditions of Sale for further information
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