Browse Similar Items
THE BRITISH GARDENER'S NEW DIRECTOR.
(Dublin: John Exshaw, 1765). 250 x 125 mm. (8 x 5"). 8 p.l., xxvi, 443, [1] pp., 6 leaves (index). Fourth Edition (First Irish Edition).
Plain contemporary calf, spine with raised bands, head and tail of spine (and some edges and corners) skillfully restored. Four copperplate diagrams inserted into the text, three folding; additionally with two attractive woodcut headpieces and one tailpiece, all with scrolling foliate motifs. Front pastedown with handwritten bookplate of L. A. Skinner, 4 The Ridge, Coulsdon, Surrey. ESTC T129360. Spine and edges of the boards dried and darkened, lower corner of front cover with large discoloration from damp, text with very thin dampstain (all suggesting the book survived a fire?), but the binding sturdy and the text surprisingly clean and fresh nevertheless.
This is a nicely illustrated work that had a huge impact on British horticulture as the first work to focus in depth on the practicalities of growing plants in a cold climate like that of Scotland. Scottish lawyer and horticulturist Sir James Justice (1698-1763) was well known among his contemporaries for the collection of rare and exotic plants he curated on his Midlothian estate. He is credited with having cultivated the first pineapple in Scotland and was elected to the Royal Society for his botanical efforts. Fellow Royal Society member William Houston named in his honor the genus Justicia, which contains more than 900 species of (mostly tropical) flowering plants. This work, his best known, was originally published in Edinburgh in 1754 under the title "The Scots Gardiners Director." Because of its obvious relevance for gardeners in Scotland, it was an immediate success there, as well as in northern England and Ireland. This led to the re-titling of the book to "The British Gardener’s Director," and the publication of two further editions in Edinburgh, followed by our 1765 Dublin edition, which seems to be quite rare on the market. (ST19567-130)
Price: $350.00