THE FLOWERS PERSONIFIED: BEING A TRANSLATION OF GRANDVILLE'S "LES FLEURS ANIMEES" ["Flowers Personified" and Bound with] MODERN BOTANY FOR LADIES; AND LADIES' HORTICULTURE. BY CTE. FOELIX. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. [Bound with] SUPPLEMENT TO THE "LADIES' BOTANY." FROM THE HISTORY OF BOTANY.
Book Details + Condition: R. Martin (New York). First Edition, bound as thus, 1849. Very scarce. Hardcover. Pagination: 385,[1],iii,[3],152,8pp. Translated from the original French. Includes 50 hand-colored plates and two uncolored plates. Images by the great Parisian caricaturist J.J. Grandville. FLOWERS PERSONIFIED was his last work, originally published posthumously in 1847, the year of his death. With its mix of the satirical and poetic, the book is considered to be one of his most supreme achievements. Original red morocco leather, elaborately stamped in pictorial gilt on front and rear boards. All edges gilt. The first American edition of this fabulous work, featuring fine steel engravings of anthropomorphized plants in what can only be described as surreal situations, delicately hand-colored. Appear as flower maidens, fairies, etc. An overall firm and clean copy of an extremely scarce edition: Tight binding (despite cracked interior hinges); rubbed corners and edges; wear to original leather boards; binding tape to spine; chipping to edges of first few pages; interior is clean and free of markings save owners' names on front free endpaper, occasional discoloration and foxing.
