Transactions of the Horticultural Society, volumes 1 and 2. 1815-1818
I bought this beautiful volume at auction. It was in a bad state externally. The boards were detached, very bashed up but still present, meaning that I could have reattached them and re-backed the spine. I am not a big fan of re-backing on the whole. It always looks obvious. But I know others feel differently.
I had just salvaged some blue/green marbled paper from a huge old book and I thought it would be perfect for this. David Vine, a book dealer who has been very good to me, had sold me some large sheets of 19th century paper which were perfect as paste-downs so I went ahead with a full rebind. Apart from the ornamental bands, you will see my favourite tool being used in the compartments. I actually have a wide array of gilding tools, but this one is very nice and I have been using it a lot recently.
The missing spine meant that it had to be replaced. I could have kept the boards and built a binding around it but I am not a fan of this sort of re-backing. I know other people are. I made some completely new boards.
I was lucky to have this marbled paper for the boards and some large sheets of 19th century paper for the paste-downs.
It is the colour plates that make this volume famous. Many techniques were combined to make them so vivid and realistic. They were hand painted at the end, making each plate a unique work of art. This book includes several plates by William Hooker which, according to Blunt and Stearn, reveal him to have been "one of the greatest pomological artists of all time".
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