THE FIRST COLOURED SWEDISH FLORA

PALMSTRUCH, JOHAN WILHELM (ed.).

Svensk Botanik. Vol. 1-10.

Sth., C. Delén a. Others, 1802-1829.

Lex8vo. 10 nice hcalf from ab. 1900 in old style, richly gilt backstop edge gilt.(G.Hedberg). Spines a little faded. Uncut. With 720 handcoloured engr.plates.

First edition of the first Swedish colour-plate book on flowers.

Palmstruch had learned drawing from Desprez and planned his magnificent work using Flora Danica and Sowerby's English Botany as models. The work was esteemed by contemporaries as an enterprise of national importance. Palmstruch's own illustrations, in the six first volumes, have been characterized as the best pictures of plants ever produced in Sweden, and make this one of the most beautiful of Swedish books (Lindberg, Swedish Books). The last parts of the final volume (vol. 11) were never published and a fire in the printing house destroyed the stock of the last published parts, which are consequently very rare.

Order-nr.: 4056