A decade of curious and elegant trees and plants: drawn after specimens received from The East Indies, and America, In the year 1772; and accurately engraved: with Their history and characters, in English and Latin. By J. Hill, M. D. member of the Imperial Academy
THE MARQUIS de COURTANVAUX–RICHMOND COPY
London: for the author, 1773. First edition.
Folio (19” x 13 5/16”, 482mm x 339mm): A1 B-F2 χ1(=A2?) [$1 signed]. 12 leaves, pp. [2] (title, blank) 1 2-20 [2] (index, blank). With 10 hand-colored engraved plates by Hill.
Bound in later (early XIXc?) half calf over blue marbled boards. On the spine, six raised bands. Author gilt to the second panel, title (“A/ DECADE”) gilt to the third, date gilt to the tail. All edges of the text-block glazed red.
The front hinge split, with the read hinge starting from both ends. Rubbed, with some losses at the corners. Mild peripheral tanning, with some chips and splits. Pale damp-stain to pll. 1-2 and quire B (pp. 1-4). Plates 8-10 and quire F starting at the bottom, with some repairs. Ink ownership stamp of the Marquis de Courtanvaux to the title-page and to the verso of pl. 10. Armorial bookplate of Carleton R. Richmond to the front paste-down, signed in ink.
John Hill (1716–1775) was instrumental in the establishment of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the 1750’s. His Vegetable System (1759–1775) was the first English book to subscribe to the taxonomy and binomial nomenclature of Carolus von Linnæus; indeed, he was created a knight of the Order of Vasa by Gustav III for his support of the Swedish princeps botanicorum. Outside the world of botany, however, he was notorious and made a great many enemies, including Christopher Smart, who wrote the savage Hilliad in the course of the “paper war” between Hill and Henry Fielding.
Hill’s Decade of curious and elegant trees and plants — doubtless a reference to Jacquin’s and Martyn’s habit of issuing their work in fascicles of ten plates (decades) at a time — is a curiously slim work, given that the Vegetable System stretched to some twenty-six volumes. Arpad Plesch (his sale, lot 350) notes the work’s originality: “they are much better than the majority of Hill plates. Several (perhaps all) are original, being the first illustrations of particular plants.” Its tone is quite informal, and gives circumstantial information about flowering and conditions of growth often lacking in higher-minded works. The purpose of the work, doubtless, was to exhibit the splendid engravings, particularly so when, as here, they are colored.
François-César Le Tellier, marquis de Courtanvaux (1718–1781) was an aristocrat of the ancien régime who distinguished himself, albeit without formal training, as a scientist. As the French pursued the English invention of the marine chronometer (to assess longitude while at sea), invented by John Harrison in 1761, Courtanvaux financed the ship Aurore that tested instruments, including Le Roy’s prize-winning chronometer. His findings were published in 1767 as the Journal du Voyage de M. le Marquis de Courtanvaux. He ensured that his son, Charles-François-César, marquis de Montmirail (1734–1764), was trained rigorously in the sciences; indeed, he was made an honorary member of the Académie des Sciences. Father and son were both collectors, but the son’s death at thirty — while in the process of compiling a bibliography of travel accounts — returned his books to his father’s library, which was auctioned by Nyon in Paris 4 March 1782. The present volume was lot 565 in the sale.
Cartleton Rubira Richmond (1887–1975) was president and chairman of West Point Manufacturing Company, a textile firm. He was graduated from Harvard in 1909 and was active in historical preservation throughout his life, including the purchase of the Pierce-Hichborn House in Boston (now a museum adjacent to the Paul Revere House) and presidency of both the Boston Athenæum and American Antiquarian Society. Purchased at his Sotheby’s Parke Bernet sale 5 March 1997, lot 63.
The work is rare: eleven examples are held in institutions[1] (per OCLC) and seven examples have come up at auction (per RBH, albeit with the potential for overlap).
Nissen, BBI 878; Henrey 804; Pritzel 4076; Sitwell, Great Flower Books, p. 100; Stafleu-Cowan 2775.
[1] New York Botanical Garden lf QK98 .H498, San Diego State University QK98 .H64 1773; University of Cincinnati QK98 .H64 1773; Lloyd Library QK98 .H64 1773; Staatsbibliothek Berlin gr.2"@Lz 1831; Oak Spring 00013015; Institut de France Fol DM 102 C Réserve; Universiteit van Amsterdam OL 63-1570; British Library 36.i.7; Bibliothèque nationale de France FRBNF30605053; Natural History Museum London 582.4 HIL F CAT UNIT.
Item #JLR0883
Price: $35,000