HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London. [with bound in volume I] Report of the Garden Committee on the Formation and Progress of the Garden; Drawn Up for the Information of the Fellows of the Society... March 31, 1823.

London: Printed by W. Bulmer & Co., [later volumes] W. Nicol, Sold by J. Hatchard, 1812-30. Seven volumes. 4to. Contemporary green half morocco over marbled boards, spines with raised bands, gilt lettered direct to two panels and blind decorated to the others, volumes I-VI uniformly bound, volume VII in a contemporary matching binding, albeit a darker shade of green, volumes IV-VII with the armorial bookplate of the Hon. William Booth Grey (motto "A ma puissance") to the the front pastedowns. 7 engraved titles plus 118 plates, 69 with fine handcolouring and 59 black and white, some folding or double page - those in colour variously of flowers and, most strikingly, fruit, those in black and white often technical illustrations of apparatus or garden buildings; the report on the Society's garden bound into volume I provides a folding plan of its establishment. Wear to the spines with some fading to the first six volumes, joint repairs to the final three volumes, dampstain to the upper margins of a few volumes, generally only affecting the text leaves and black and white plates. Founded in 1804, this complete set of the first series of the Society's transactions documents its early years and illustrates the talents of its burgeoning membership. A second series was also published and was completed in 1848. The Garden Committee report refers to their second garden at Chiswick, initially overseen by the great botanist Joseph Paxton. William Booth Grey was the son of George Harry Grey, 5th Earl of Stamford. He appears to have been something of a botanical artist himself, with examples of his work held in the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; he was also the subject of a small exhibition in East Hampton, NY in 2004. He worked in a style similar to the artist Mary Delany, creator of the botanic "paper mosaik" style, although he seems to have created collages from dissected sections of his own paintings rather than using coloured paper as Delany did. Item #36721

Price: £3,250.00