Traité des arbres et arbustes que l'on cultive en France en pleine terre Par Duhamel Second Édition considérablement augmentée
THE RICHARD HARRIS SET OF THE “NEW DUHAMEL”
Five volumes. Paris: Etienne Michel et Arthus Bertrand, [1800–]1804–1806–1809–1812. First edition.
Folio (20 7/16” x 13 ¼”, 518mm x 338mm).
Vol. I: π-2π2 1-202 20bis2 20ter1 21-662 χ2 [$1 signed]. 141 leaves, pp. [4] (half title, explanation of the engraved title vignette, 2pp. dedication to Madame Bonaparte), 1 2-4 (4pp. plan of the work), 21 22-80 77bis-80bis 77ter-78ter 81 82-264, i ii-iv (4pp. contents). [=viii, 270, iv] With an engraved title-page and 60 stipple-engraved plates printed in color à la poupée.
Vol. II: π2 1-612 a1 b2 [$1 signed]. 127 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), 1 2-244, i ii-v (5pp. contents) blank. With 71 stipple-engraved plates printed in color à la poupée.
Vol. III: π2 1-582 591 a2 [$1 signed]. 121 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), 1 2-234, i ii-iv (4pp. contents). With 60 stipple-engraved plates printed in color à la poupée (numbered 1-27, 27bis, 28, 28bis, 29-58[1]).
Vol. IV: π2 1-22 31 3bis2 4bis2 4-602 χ2 [$1 signed; +352–402 and 492-602 signed “35*”,“36*” etc.]. 127 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), 1 2-10 9bis-14bis 11 12-240, 21 22-4. [=iv, 246, iv] With 68 stipple-engraved plates printed in color à la poupée (numbered 1bis, 2bis, 3bis, 1-11, 11bis, 12-33, 33bis, 34-63).
Vol. V: π2 1-16 χ171 17-822 χ2 [$1 signed; +142–162 signed “14*”,“15*” and “16*”]. 169 leaves, pp. [4] (half-title, blank, title, blank), 1 2-330, 21 22-4. With 85 plates, of which 83 are stipple-engraved plates printed in color à la poupée (numbered 1-44 46-47 45 48-72 72bis 73-75 77 76 78-81 83 82 84) and 2 (pll. 33 & 34) engraved and printed in black.
With 344 plates in toto,[2] of which 342 are stipple-engraved plates printed in color à la poupée and 2 engraved and printed in black.
Bound in contemporary magenta paste-paper. On the spine, author, title and number gilt to black morocco labels. All edges of the text-block untrimmed.
Spines sunned, with splits and losses. Worn generally. Foxed, with some passages of damp-staining and offsetting. A handful of plates tanned. A wholly unsophisticated set of the first 5 volumes of an eventual 7 (although Stafleu-Cowan accedes to the uncertainty of the issue of the work).
Henri-Louis Duhamel de Monceau (1700–1782) published a Traité des arbres et arbustes in 1755, and that work does indeed provide a scaffold for the present set, but the association of the name of the great botanist-doctor is largely an homage. Under the impetus of Etienne Marcel (as editor for the whole work?) and others, including Charles-François Brisseau de Mirbel and Jean-Louis-Auguste Loiseleur-Deslongschamps, an essentially new publication under the same title was published from 1800. Often called the “nouveau Duhamel” (whence the “Second Édition” of the title) the Traité updates the survey of trees and shrubs cultivated in France, illustrated afresh with plates after Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) — the “Raphael of flowers” — and his pupil Pancrace Bessa (1772–1846). Redouté’s contributions were only to voll. I-V.
Of particular note is the coloring of the plates at the press à la poupée — i.e., such that the individual colors of ink are applied directly to the plate using a small cloth bundle (a “poupée” is a rag-doll; modern practitioners use cotton ear-swabs) — that Redouté had learned from Bartolozzi during his time in London with L’Héritier de Brutelle making the Sertum Anglicum.
The set was sold at Christie’s New York (3 May 1978, lot 315), likely to Richard Harris, who bought widely in the UK and the Netherlands throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. His central collection was of fine examples of natural history plate books, though his tastes were wide enough that his library was sold at Bloomsbury New York (16 October 2010, the present set lot 30) and then at Bloomsbury London (19 November 2010).
Hunt, Redoutéana 14; Plesch, pp. 211-212; Stafleu-Cowan 1547.
[1] The Hunt set has pl. 50bis, though this is not called for in the text.
[2] Pace earlier cataloguers, who counted 67 rather than 68 plates in vol. IV, omitting 3bis, likely per the graphite manuscript collation on the recto of the rear free end-paper of that volume.
Item #JLR0723
Price: $38,000