Robert John Thornton | Botanical extracts: or philosophy of botany, 1810, 3 vols, contemporary maroon morocco gilt

Robert John Thornton

Botanical extracts: or philosophy of botany. London: T. Bensley, 1810

FIRST EDITION, 2 volumes bound in three, folio (460 x 325mm.), titles to volumes one and 2 with wood-engraved vignettes, volume 3 with engraved title, 82 engraved plates, a few double-page, contemporary straight-grained maroon morocco gilt, some plates cropped, some dampstaining, binding slightly rubbed; sold not subject to return

Stafleu describes the work as "a bibliographer's nightmare", as few copies are alike. The plates are mostly botanical, there are also double-page views of showing Chinese tea cultivation and eruptions of both Vesuvius and Etna.

Robert John Thornton (1768-1837) was an English physician and botanist, best known for his A New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus Von Linnæus (1797-1807) and The British Flora (1812). This much more rare work is comprised of 3 sections, with this first edition finely bound in 2 volumes. 

LITERATURE:

Nissen BBI 1956; Stafleu TL2 14.284