John Hill | Eden, or a compleat body of gardening, London, 1757, modern red morocco

[John Hill]

Eden: or, a compleat body of gardening. Containing plain and familiar directions for raising the several useful products of a garden, fruits, roots, and herbage... London: for T. Osborne. T. Trye, S. Crowder and H. Woodgate, 1757

Folio (427 x 251mm.), hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, 60 hand-coloured engraved plates, crushed red morocco gilt by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, gilt edges, title-page and frontispiece slightly worn and repaired, frontispiece laid down

This comprehensive and practical work on plants and gardening is arranged chronologically, reflecting its original publication in weekly parts, costing sixpence each from 28 August 1756 until 16 November 1757. The whole work was then published in November 1757 with a title-page and frontispiece, mentioning a Mr Hale but not John Hill, who signs the preface; Hill was a controversial character and this may have been a way to avoid alienating potential readers.

LITERATURE:

Cleveland Herbal 442; Nissen BBI 880