Dreyhundert auserlesene Amerikanische Gewächse nach Linneischer Ordnung
Six parts in three volumes. Nuremberg: Raspische Buchhandlung; 1789–1786, 1786–1787, 1787–1788.
Octavo in 4s (8 1/8” x 4 7/8”, 207mm x 124mm).
Vol. I (Erste Hundert, erste [–zwote] Hälfte): A-B4, C4 D2 [$3 signed; –A1, C1]. 14 leaves, pp. 1-3 (first part title, blank, preface) 4-15, 16-18 (blank, second part title, blank) 19-27 “22”. With 100 (50, 50) hand-colored engraved plates numbered 1-100.
Vol. II (Zweite Hundert, erste [–zwote] Hälfte): E4 F2, G4 H2 [$3 signed; –E1, F2, G1]. 12 leaves, pp. 23-25 (first part title, blank, text) 26-29 36 31-34, [3] (second part title, blank, text) 36-40 45-46 43-44. (=ii, 10; ii 10) With 100 (50, 50) hand-colored engraved plates numbered 102, 101, 103-200.
Vol. III (Dritte Hundert, erste [–zwote] Hälfte): I4 K2, L-M4 [$3 signed; –I1, K2, L1]. 14 leaves, pp. [3] (first part title, blank, text) 48-56, 57-59 (second part title, blank, text) 60-72. (=ii, 10; ii, 14) With 100 (50, 50) hand-colored engraved plates numbered 201-300.
With 300 hand-colored engraved plates in toto.
Bound in contemporary speckled calf (re-backed, with the original backstrips laid down) with a gilt fillet border. On the spine, five raised bands. Title (“AMERIKANISCHE/GEWĂCHSE”) gilt to black morocco in the second panel, number gilt to a black calf oval in the third.
Re-backed (in 2025 by Judy Ivry) or else hinges strengthened, with the original backstrips laid down or preserved. Rubbed, with some losses at the heads and tails. Wear at the fore-edges and to the fore-corners. Soiling to the fore-edge of the text-block of vol. II. Exceptionally fresh internally, with the odd spot of foxing, soiling or pigment offsetting. Green pigment oxidized verso. Pl. 179 shaved at the fore, just touching the border. Pl. 197 pigment flaking (archival tissue inserted). A tall set, with, e.g., the M2 lower deckle preserved. Armorial bookplate of Sir Richard Sutton Bar.t to the front paste-down of each volume.
Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (1727–1817), at the request of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, traveled through the West Indies, collecting specimens for the Schönbrunn Palace (which Alexander von Humboldt studied in preparation for his America trip). His 1763 Selectarum stirpium americanarum historia was the result of that trip, and Jacquin’s first major publication. Jacquin there gave the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) — now one of the world’s most valuable if controversial crops — its current binomial name for the first time. The plates were an important record of his collecting, since many of the specimens were kept in such a way that they degraded or were destroyed in the Viennese climate. Jacquin was a committed correspondent with Carl Linnaeus; initially, as here, Jacquin is pure pupil and sincere admirer; with time, he would come to debate the master botanist.
Johannes Zorn (1739–1799) was a pharmacist-botanist from Kempten, who undertook to circulate the images of Jacquin — 256 of the 300, per Stafleu-Cowan; elsewhere 264, probably incorrectly — into a smaller and more affordable format, viz. the present work.[1] The dates of the halves of each century correspond to Stafleu-Cowen except for the first, here 1789 instead of 1785, as e.g. in the Library of Congress set. Likely the earliest title-page was simply re-issued with the year following that of completion to refresh the work; bibliographers have not stated definitively. A handful of the plates (e.g., 70 & 71) bear very faintly “G. Vogel sc. Nor.” indicating that the engraving was undertaken by one of several members of that family (Georg Christoph?) practicing in Nuremberg in the XVIIIc. Previous cataloguers suggest that Louise Römer was the artist (i.e., reducing copyist?) but this may be a misreading of Nissen. The Raspische Buchhandlung is the name used by the widow of Gabriel Nicolaus Raspe (1712–1785), who had incorporated several other firms in Nuremberg.
Sir Richard Sutton, 1st Baronet (1733–1802) was a Member of Parliament 1768–1796 and served as Lord of the Treasury 1780–1782. Educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, Sutton obtained an Act of Parliament that allowed him to exchange his original estate, Easthorpe, for Norwood Park — still standing — in Nottinghamshire. The grounds were entirely overhauled, and perhaps the present set enriched Sir Richard’s passion for American plants.
Nissen, BBI 2204 (1785–88); Stafleu-Cowan 18.748 (1785–1788).
[1] The title can be rendered into English: “three-hundred selected American plants according to Linnaean taxonomy.”
Item #JLR0786
Price: $5,500