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Lot 623

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Plantae selectae [...].

TREW, Christoph Jacob

€ 20.000 / 30.000

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Lot description

[Nuremberg, s.n., 1750-1773]

Folio: [6]-56-[2] pp.; 100 pl. (portraits, general titles and 9 sectional titles missing, as often and without the supplements by B.Chr. Vogel; some very minor spotting).

Contemp. sheep, gilt orn. spine with 7 raised bands, green leather title label, red edges (corners rubbed and sl. bumped, scratches on covers, sides rubbed missing some parts of leather, joints splitting, head and tail def.).

First edition of what Nissen calls "the most beautiful German plant-book; even among foreign works there are few which could compete with it". With 100 magnificent hand-coloured engraved plates after original paintings by Georg Dionysius Ehret engraved by Johann Jacob Haid and J.E. Haid; each with the first word of the caption illuminated in gold. With only one of the 10 "decuria" (sectional) titles, "decuria I", in red black and heightened in gold. Superb copy of Trew and Ehret's much praised collaboration considered to be the finest botanical work ever printed in Germany. G.D. Ehret (1708-1770), a gardener and one of the great flower painters in the 18th c., known for his highly accurate and technically detailed drawings, was admired by Trew who became his lifelong friend and patron. In 1742 Trew wrote to Christian Thran in Carlsruhe: "Every year I receive some beautifully painted exotic plants [by Ehret] and have already more than one hundred of them, which with other pieces executed by local artists, should later on, Deo volante, constitute an appendicem to Weinmann's publication but will, I hope, find a better reception than his". In 1748 an agreement was reached that Johann Jacob Haid from Augsburg should provide the engravings, and the first part appeared in 1750 which led to "one of the miracles of our century in the natural sciences". Trew died in 1769 and left the last three parts of "Plantae selectae" uncompleted. B.Chr. Vogel, professor of botany at the University of Altdorf, finished the work.
Ref. Nissen (BBI) 1997. - Pritzel 9499. - Great Flower Books, p. 78. - A Cleveland Herbal 429. - Hunt 539. - Stafleu & Cowan 15.131.

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Plantae selectae [...].

Lot 623

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