Charles Henry Bellenden Ker | Icones plantarum sponte China nascentium, London, 1821, original black cloth rebacked

Charles Henry Bellenden Ker

Icones plantarum sponte China nascentium; e Bibliotheca Braamiana excerptae. London: J. H. Bohte, 1821

First edition, second issue, folio (483 x 347mm.), 30 hand-coloured plates (23 lithographed, 7 engraved), original cloth rebacked with black cloth, paper label to upper cover, some spotting and browning at extremities, extremities slightly rubbed

Ker (c. 1785-1871) a law reformer, was also one of the first private growers of orchids, writing a series of articles on the subject in the Gardener's Chronicle. His attractive plates are based on Chinese drawings collected by A.E. van Braam-Houckgeest, described in An Authentic Account of the Embassy ... to the Court of the Emperor of China (1798), volume 2, pp. 297-324. The drawings passed to William Cattley who made them available to Ker. The first issue of the plates was dated 1818, titled Icones pictae Indo-Asiaticae plantarum excerptae e codicibus Dom. Cattley and contained 24 plates; only three copies of that issue are known.

LITERATURE:

Dunthorne 163; Great Flower Books, p. 62; Nissen BBI 1030; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 3583