Loudon, Jane Webb 1807 1858 (7 results)

8vo. 3 pp. on bifolium. To a gentleman, about designs which Loudon would accept from the recipient's friend for "The Ladies' Companion at Home and Abroad", the new editor of which Loudon had just become, and discussing a severe disease torturing a family member: "I have been employed to edit a new illustrated paper, in which imaginative designs are wanted, & it has struck me that those you showed us by a friend of yours might do. Would you have any objection to bring your friend here to drink tea at ½ past 5 on Sunday next; or if you don't like Sunday, on Monday; & I shall be very glad if he would bring one or two of his designs with him. I am afraid Agnes [i. e. Jane's daughter] won't be able to keep her birthday this year; on account of the dangerous illness of a near relation, one of her father's sister, as the disease though lingering will probably terminate in death. We all join in kind regards [.]". - In 1827, Jane Webb had published her famous tale "The Mummy", in which Pharaoh Khufu is brought back to life in the year 2126. The novel describes a future filled with advanced technology and was the first English-language story to feature a reanimated mummy. Following a favourable review in The Gardener's Magazine, the reviewer, the Scottish botanist John Claudius Loudon, sought out the 22-year-old Webb, and they married the next year, after which she devoted much of her literary efforts to supporting his interests. The women's magazine "The Ladies' Companion at Home and Abroad" started successfully, but its sales fell, and Jane Loudon resigned a few years later, though she continued writing other works on horticulture and gardening, especially for the use of ladies. - Traces of old mounting on the verso and some light foxing.

Quarto 11 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches, leather bound in half period dark morocco, some repairs. Text and 90 FINE HAND COLOURED PLATES- complete. The second edition but unusually most plates with the very fine hand colouring normally associated with the first edition. A clean copy of this decorative botanical work. The second edition is -printed on a larger paper, chiefly for the sake of giving a wider margin to the plates (introduction). An old inscription on the endpaper. Small marginal tear to plate 19 and 52 otherwise plates remarkably clean.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 4to. pp. xvi, 311. 60 lithographed plates printed in colour & finished by hand. modern half calf, original cloth sides bound in. Second Edition. Mrs. Loudon was the wife of landscape gardener and horticultural writer, John Loudon, who designed the Birmingham Botanical Garden. She began to write popular botanical books to help pay off the debts that her husband incurred in publishing his Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum. Nissen 1233. cfPritzel 5636.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 4to. pp. xii, 215. with half-title. 42 hand-coloured lithographed plates. with tissue guards. modern half morocco (light stain to lower gutter margin of first few leaves). Third Edition. Including depictions of various types of clematis, anemone, hibiscus, camellia, geranium, acacia, fuschsia, marigold, heath, &c. cfNissen 1236. cfSitwell & Blunt, Great Flower Books, p. 66.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 4to. pp. viii, xvi, 272. with half-title. 48 hand-coloured lithographed plates. with tissue guards. modern half morocco (edges of some leaves & plates bit chipped, light foxing to outer leaves). Second Edition. Mrs. Loudon was the wife of landscape gardener and horticultural writer, John Loudon, who designed the Birmingham Botanical Garden. She began to write popular botanical books to help pay off the debts that her husband incurred in publishing his Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum. The plates in the present volume depict various types of nigella, larkspur, poppy, godetia, primrose, clarkia, candytuft, flax, calandrinia, catchfly, dianthus, nasturtium, lupine, sweet pea, vetch, phlox, lobelia, campanula, ageratum, zinnia, browallia, petunia, &c. Sitwell & Blunt, Great Flower Books, p. 66. cfNissen 1234. cfPritzel 5632.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good +. LOUDON Mrs. (illustrator). 1st Edition. VG+, 5 volumes in 6, 1840-1860, 304 (complete) hand coloured plates, depicting 1,582 flowers! Ornamental Annuals, 1840, 1st ed, 48 pls (hand coloured), lacks half title, [5], (viii-xvi), [1], (ii-iv), [1], 2-272 pp, 207*269 mm, ink name to verso TP. Ornamental Bulbous Plants, 1841, 1st ed, 58 pls (hand coloured), lacks h/t, [3], (vi-x), [1], 2-270 pp, 251*269 mm, marbled endpapers. Ornamental Perennials, 1843 & 1844, 1st ed, 96 pls (in total & hand coloured), half title, [2], [3], (iv-x), [1], 2-190 pp, 45 pls; half title, [5], (vi-x), [1], 51 pls, book marks to fpds & ink name to feps, a.e.g. British Wild Flowers, 1846, 1st ed, 60 pls (hand coloured), lacks h/t, [3], (vi-xvi), [1], 2-311 pp, 216*274 mm. Ornamental Greenhouse Plants, 1860, 3rd ed, 42 pls (hand coloured), half title, [5], (vi-xii), [1], 2-215 pp, 231*299 mm, bookplate to fpd. All in modern dark green half morocco, raised bands, gilt tooling & titles, over various boards - Annuals in contemp. green cloth; Bulbous in contemp green cloth. Perennials both vols in modern green marbled boards; Wild Flowers in modern green marbled boards; Greenhouse Plants in contemp embossed green cloth with gilt plant. Very occasional light spotting, but a set rarely found in such clean condition. Loudon, writer on botany and magazine editor, who when production of her husband's Arboretum (1838) saddled the family with debts of £10,000, turned again to authorship, and tapped the ready Victorian market for books popularizing horticulture, botany, and natural history. Instructions in Gardening for Ladies (1840) was hugely successful; 1350 copies were sold on the day of publication alone. The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Annuals (1840), the first in a much-reprinted series of informative illustrated books, was followed by others about bulbs, greenhouse plants, and perennials. See ODNB.

5 works in 5 volumes, 4to. (11 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches). 300 hand-coloured lithographed plates. Uniformly bound in contemporary dark green morocco boards elaborately tooled and bordered in gilt, spines with raised bands in six compartments gilt tooled and lettered, gilt turn-ins, purple watered silk endpapers, all edges gilt A complete set of Early Editions of Jane Loudon's widely regarded gardening manuals that made the world of botany and gardening more approachable to a diverse readership, particularly for women interested in horticulture. 1.) The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Annuals. London: William S. Orr and Co. Second Edition. viii, xvi, 272 pp. 50 hand-coloured lithographed plates (plate 42 bound in as frontispiece). 2.) The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Perennials. London: William S. Orr and Co. Second Edition. xv, [1], 341, [3] pp. 90 hand-coloured lithographed plates (plate 38 bound in as frontispiece) 3.) The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Greenhouse Plants. London: William S. Orr and Co. Second Edition. xii, 215 pp. 42 hand-coloured lithographed plates. 4.) The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Bulbous Plants. London: William S. Orr and Co. Second Edition. x, 270 pp. 58 hand-coloured lithographed plates (plate 46 bound in as frontispiece). 5.) British Wild Flowers. London: William S. Orr and Co. Second Edition. xvi, 311 pp. 60 hand-coloured lithographed plates. Jane Loudon's series The Ladies' Flower Garden serves as a comprehensive guide to the cultivation of flowers and plants aimed to encourage women to take an active role in gardening and explore the pleasures of cultivating and beautifying their outdoor spaces. Although presented here as a set, Loudon's intention, as stated in the preface of the first work in the series, was for each work to be complete in itself "so that the proprietor of a small town-garden, who can grow only annuals or bulbs, need only purchase the volume, or volumes, containing the plants he feels inclined to cultivate." In contrast to the specialist language of botanical publications at the time, Loudon's writing is accessible and informative, making it a valuable resource for both novice and experienced gardeners. Jane Loudon embarked on her series of accessible botanical publications in 1838, motivated by her desire to alleviate her husband's financial burden. Loudon's husband was the esteemed botanist, gardener, and horticultural writer, John Loudon, whom she had met after her popular novel, The Mummy, Tales for the Twenty Second Century, was published. Prior to her marriage, Jane Loudon had no formal training in botany but John Loudon's expertise and extensive knowledge of horticulture greatly influenced Jane's own interest in the subject. Under his guidance, she became a skilled horticulturist and author in her own right. Great Flower Books (1990) p.115; Nissen BBI 1233, 1235, 1236, 1237, 1253; cf. Pritzel 5632 (first edition).