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GARDENING - DOWN, Chester B. Descriptive Catalogue of Choice Green House and Hot House Plants.Strafford, VT : 1881
The gardening supplier's catalogue of household seeds and bulbs.Learn More
HAY, Roy, & Patrick M. Synge. The Dictionary of Garden Plants.London : 1970
Signed limited edition, number 43 of 265 copies signed by the authors and finely bound by Zaehnsdorf. The first edition was published the previous year.Learn More
OGAWA, Kazumasa. A Model Japanese Villa.Tokyo : 1907
Later edition, following the first of 1899. The brightly hand-coloured collotypes show the house and gardens of Okuma Shigenobu (1838-1922), the prime minister of Japan in 1898. Okuma was also an advocate of Westernisation and the founder of Waseda University.
The illustrations show this traditional Japanese mansion from both the outside...Learn More
HUGHES, John Arthur. Garden Architecture and Landscape Gardening.London : 1866
First edition of this handbook to landscape architecture, covering various types of garden design, including the Italian, Dutch, French, Picturesque, and Natural styles.
"Since at least the 16th century, the creation and enjoyment of gardens had been leisure occupation of aristocrat, squire and rural cleric. The novelty of the 19th century,...Learn More
SACKVILLE-WEST, Vita. English Country Houses.London : 1941
First edition. This illustrated work formed part of the "Britain in Pictures" series. Written during the Second World War, "it had the aim of boosting national pride and morale and reads a little like a love letter to the stately and, even more, the not-so-stately homes of England" (Garden History Blog).Learn More
NAKAJIMA, Shunko. Kokon Hiden: Tsukiyamatei zoho ("Secret Techniques Old and New: Tsukiyama Garden Design").Osaka : 1896
First edition of this comprehensive guide to "artificial hill" style Japanese gardens. The first volume gives examples of designs for rocks, streams, paths, lanterns, fences, and bridges, while the second volume analyses how they come together into one composition. The third volume shows real gardens from across Japan, including that of the Golden...Learn More
HOOKER, Sir William Jackson, & John Charles Lyons. A Century of Orchidaceous Plants selected from Curtis's Botanical Magazine.London : 1849
First edition, from the Knowsley library of Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (1775-1851). A politician and a naturalist, Stanley became one of the figureheads of the science of zoological classification, and was president of the Linnean Society of London from 1828 to 1834, as well as being president of the Zoological Society of London for...Learn More
SAKAI, Hoitsu; Suzuki Kiitsu; Nakano Kimei. Shiki no hana ("Flowers of the Four Seasons").Kyoto : 1908
First edition, with vibrant depictions of flowers and fruits from across Japan. Sakai was a "precocious and eventually prolific artist" who re-established the Rinpa school, while his student Suzuki was known for utilizing a "palette of pinks, purples, and incandescent blues that had never before been seen" (Carpenter, p. 32). WorldCat lists seven...Learn More
HILL, John. A Method of Producing Double Flowers from Single, by a Regular Course of Culture.London : 1758
First edition of this horticultural work by the botanist who helped introduce Linnaean taxonomy into England. It is illustrated with eight plates depicting a range of tulips and veronicas, depicted with "considerable artistic and technical ability" (Olivier, p. 101).
John Hill (c.1714-1775) trained as an apothecary, during which he attended...Learn More
LINDLEY, George. A Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen Garden; or, an Account of the Most Valuable Fruit and Vegetables Cultivated in Great Britain:London : 1831
First edition of this collaborative guide by the father and son botanical duo. George Lindley (1769-1835) was a pomologist who ran a commercial nursery garden in Norwich; his son, John, went on to become an eminent botanist.
A fellow of the Royal, Linnean, and Geological societies and the chair of botany at UCL, John Lindley (1799-1865) was...Learn More
SOWERBY, Arthur de Carle. Nature Notes: A Guide to the Fauna and Flora of a Shanghai Garden.Shanghai : 1939
First edition, uncommon in commerce, of this examination of Shanghai's rich urban natural world. The contents, a series of considered reflections on insects and many other forms of life appeared as a series of articles in the North-China Daily News in 1938.
A leading naturalist of his day, Sowerby (1885-1954) was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi, to...Learn More
HOGG, Robert. The Apple & Pear as Vintage Fruits.Hereford : 1886
First edition, review copy, inscribed "with the publisher's compliments" on the front free endpaper. This catalogue by one of the leading experts in fruit cultivation is based on the Herefordshire Pomona (1876-1885), a "project embodying Hogg's aim of providing accurate information to growers" (ODNB).
Hogg's (1818-1897) research trips...Learn More
AGRICULTURE. A Dissertation on the Nature of Soils, and the Properties of Manure:London : 1833
Second edition, in the original boards, of this practical handbook of soil fertilization, containing six essays on crop rotation, manures, and compost. The second edition adds a 33-page appendix on agricultural policy in pre-Victorian England.
The anonymous author dedicates the work to Sir John Sinclair (1754-1835), a noted codifier of...Learn More
JEKYLL, Gertrude. Colour in the Flower Garden.London : 1908
First edition, first impression. Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, and craftswoman. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States, and her prolific and enduring advice on gardening, published across magazines, books, and journals, remain an influential reference for...Learn More
CRUICKSHANK, Thomas. The Practical Planter:Edinburgh : 1830
First edition of the author's forestry manual, which includes Sir Henry Stuart's account "of giving immediate effect to wood". Thomas Cruickshank's work examines the cultivation, management, and properties of various types of trees native to the British Isles.
Cruickshank describes himself as a "Forester at Careston", a small hamlet on the...Learn More
TRESIDDER, Mary Curry. The Trees of Yosemite.California : 1932
First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the front pastedown, "To Adeline Palache, with the hope that she will come and visit the aforesaid trees. Mary Tresidder. May 21 1936". A keen botanist, Tresidder (1893-1970) was the President of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company - the concessionaire of the national park - and here offers...Learn More
EVELYN, John. A Philosophical Discourse of Earth, Relating to the Culture and Improvement of it for Vegetation, and the Propagation of Plants.London : 1676
First edition, better known by its later title of Terra, of this analysis of the character, cultivation, and uses of various soils, drawing on Evelyn's practical experience as a keen gardener. Evelyn's pioneering work on tree cultivation, Sylva (1664), was the first publication to receive the Royal Society's imprimatur, and Terra was printed with...Learn More
BLITH, Walter. The English Improover, or a new Survey of Husbandry.London : 1649
One of two 1649 editions, of unestablished priority. Walter Blith (1605-1654) has been called by Robert Trow-Smith "the greatest of the mid-seventeenth century writers" in the field of agriculture (English Husbandry, 1951). In this work, Blith advocates draining and making water meadows, inclosure, the use of manures, and plantations.
"In...Learn More
THOMPSON, Reginald Campbell. A Dictionary of Assyrian Botany.London : 1949
First and only edition. Well-represented institutionally, and occasionally encountered on the market, but rarely without library paraphernalia, and in such sound condition. Thompson was one of the leading Assyriologists of his era, his skill in the transcription of cuneiform being such that some of "those in Thompson's handscript remain...Learn More
THAXTER, Celia. An Island Garden.Boston and New York : 1895
Second edition, with an autograph letter signed from the author and dated 6 August 1880 reading: "Gentlemen: Will you kindly send me a copy of sayings of Epictetus, the small, vest-pocket edition, with bill for same & oblige, yours truly, C. Thaxter, Appledore, Isles of Shrals [sic] Off Portsmouth, N. H." tipped-in to the front free endpaper, and...Learn More
