Weinmann, Johann Wilhelm | The first botanical book to use color-printed mezzotint successfully, the de Belder-Von Hoffman copy

Weinmann, Johann Wilhelm

Phytanthoza Iconographia id est accurata delineatio aliquot millium plantarum, arborum, fruticum, herbarum, florum, fructuum, fungorum tum domesticae tum exoticae originis ex omnibus terrarum partibus magnis impensis et immensa diligentia collectorum. Augsburg: [J.J. Haid], [1737]–1745

4 volumes in 8 (4 of text, 4 of plates), folio (405 x 245 mm). Text vols.: Parallel text in Latin and German, stipple engraved portraits of Weinmann and Ambrose Bieler, with an allegorical frontispiece of Ceres, all printed in blue by Haid after Hirschmann or Baumgartner, 4 engraved titles in Latin with letters heightened in gold and red; scattered dampstaining mostly to upper margins of vols. 1 & 3, affecting the portraits, frontis, and titles, loss to corner of vol. 2: G2 affecting one numeral. Plate vols.: 1024 engraved and mezzotint plates, 14 of them folding, printed in colors and finished by hand after Georg Dionysius Ehret, N. Asamin and others by J.J. Haid, J.E. Ridinger and J. Seuter, 1 page of early manuscript description of the "Aloe Africana" in French laid into plate vol. 1; offsetting and occasional light damp-staining to margins, plates 233-275 (vol. 1) and 503-525 (vol. 2) dampstained at upper, and lower portions respectively, 5 plates in vol. 1 with slight pigment loss from adhesion between pages, apparently lacking plate 451, short closed tears to margins of plates 63, 852, 931, 961, plate 892 bound upside down, plates 892 and 541 trimmed. Contemporary French mottled calf gilt, spine in compartments with morrocco lettering-pieces lettered and tooled in gilt, marbled endpapers; moderate wear, a few old repairs, minor losses to head- and tail-pieces, several joints cracked but holding firmly.

The de Belder-Von Hoffman copy; Haid's reissue of this highly ambitious survey of the plant kingdom, presenting, in alphabetical order, plants ranging from algae to bulbs, flowering plants, vegetables, fruits, shrubs, and trees. Weinmann’s magnum opus was "The first botanical book to use colour-printed mezzotint successfully" (Hunt) and clearly represents a technical and artistic advance on its precursors, Martyn’s Historia plantarum rariorum (1728; see lot 31) and the Society of Gardeners' Catalogus plantarum (1730).

Phytanthoza iconographia contains the first published (though unsigned) illustrations by perhaps the greatest botanical artist of the eighteenth century, Georg Dionysius Ehret. Ehret served his apprenticeship as a botanical draftsman under Weinmann, who exploited him mercilessly, supposedly offering only a meager wage and then paying him just half the promised amount. Ehret eventually withdrew from the project, which explains why he is not acknowledged anywhere in the book. Still, Ehret’s distinctive style is on display throughout the work and particularly in the various aloes and cacti that are depicted in elaborate pots and urns.

When Ehret refused to continue on the work, Weinmann replaced him with N. Asamin, a talented young female artist. Extremely influential at the time of its publication, Weinmann’s work is now principally valued for the high artistic standard of its plates, but it also represents an extremely valuable record of the plant kingdom as it was understood and classified in the period just preceding the introduction of Linnaeus' revolutionary system of classification. The text is by J. G. N. Dietrichs, L. M. Dietrichs, and A. K. Bieler. As with many works published in parts and more than one issue (in addition to Jan Burmann’s Dutch translation and the preliminary Eigentliche Darstellung, 1734–1735), the make-up of preliminary leaves and indexes varies from copy to copy.

REFERENCE:

Cleveland Collections 388; De Belder sale 382 (this copy); cf. Dunthorne 327; cf. Great Flower Books, p. 151; cf. Hunt 494; Nissen BBI 2126; cf. Pritzel 10140; cf. Stafleu & Cowan TL2 1705

PROVENANCE:

M. le Comte Francois Potocki (bookplates) — Philippe de Vilmorin (bookplates) — Robert de Belder (his sale, Sotheby's London, 28 April 1987, lot 382) — Ladislaus von Hoffman (Christie's New York, 4 June 1997, "An Important Botanical Library, The Property of a Gentleman," lot 151)