Illust Frederick Polydore Nodder (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. First. First edition. Four volumes. London: F.P. Nodder, [1791-]1792-1794[-1795]. Octavo (8 3/8" x 5 3/16", 213mm x 132mm). [Full collation available.] With 144 hand-colored engraved plates in toto. Bound in later (late-XIXc-early-XXc; signed gilt at the tail by Gruel) three-quarter navy-blue morocco over marbled boards. On the spine, seven pairs of gilt fillets. Title gilt to the second panel, number gilt to the fourth, binder gilt to tail. Tope edge of the text-block gilt. Marbled end-papers. Pale blue silk marking-ribbons. Some chips and bumps to the extremities. Vol. I, leaves 13 and 14 (the second and third leaves describing Lolium (pl. 4)) are reversed; else collated complete against Henrey. Mildly tanned throughout, with some offsetting at the plates, with pigment oxidation to the reverse of the plates. Several lower and fore-deckles preserved throughout. Bookplates (of a XIXc design) of "JW" surmounted by a torse supporting a dove with the olive branch in its beak to the front paste-down of each volume. Thomas Martyn (1735-1825), the long-lived son of John Martyn, succeeded his father as Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge. He represents the shift to and final dominance of Linnaeus in British botany; whereas the elder Martyn was an exponent of Ray, the author of the present work became one of the great Anglophone apostles of the Linnaean system. The present work, which was advertised for subscription in 1791, is the pinnacle of Martyn's scholarly output -- despite being better known as the English translator of Rousseau's Lettres sur la botanique -- and was intended to continue. As the advertisement to the fourth volume decorously laments, "we have received the most flattering testimony to the usefulness of our work from several public societies, and many respectable individuals; but our pecuniary encouragement has not been such as to warrant our carrying it on to any great extent." Around the same time, Martyn ceased to lecture at Cambridge due to a dearth of interest. Nodder, who illustrated and engraved the plates, also oversaw their coloration (Hunt ad loc.). About the "JW" whose bookplate (presumably lifted from an earlier binding) is in each volume nothing can be discovered. The firm of Gruel (in its heyday helmed by Léon Gruel, 1841-1923) became known as one of the finest purveyors of decorative -- fantastical, even -- bindings around the turn of the century. The present set is no less fine for its simplicity. Henrey 1023; Hunt 721; Nissen, BBI 1291; Pritzel 5929; Sitwell, p. 118.