Dillenius | Hortus Elthamensis, London, 1732, 2 volumes, calf gilt by Kalthoeber

Johann Jacob Dillenius

Hortus Elthamensis, seu plantarum rariorum quas in horto suo Elthami in Cantio coluit... Jacobus Sherard. London: the author (printed by G. Smith), 1732

FIRST EDITION, 2 volumes, folio (468 x 275mm.), woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, half-title in volume 2, 325 hand-coloured engraved plates (numbered 1-167, 168-324, with an unnumbered plate at the end of volume 1), contemporary russia gilt by Kalthoeber (with his ticket), spines gilt in compartments, marbled edges, lacking half-title in volume 1, foot of one spine chipped, joints cracking, extremities slightly rubbed

A fine copy of Dillenius's description of the plants growing on the Eltham estate of the apothecary James Sherard (1666-1738). Dillenius had come to England in 1721 after meeting Sherard and his brother William, a botanist, who had travelled to the Continent to acquire new plants for the Eltham garden. William Sherard subsequently endowed a chair of botany at Oxford with Dillenius appointed as the first professor for life.

The garden at Eltham had hothouses for the cultivation of exotic plants, and the largest single category of plants mentioned by Dillenius is mesembryanthemums; more than fifty are described.

LITERATURE:

ESTC T83066; Henrey 643; Nissen BBI 492; Stafleu TL2 1471

PROVENANCE:

Joseph Livesey (1794-1884) of Preston, armorial bookplate; Livesey was a noted social reformer, vegetarian and teetotaller