Beschreibung:

Nathaniel Wallich (1786-1854) Plantae Asiaticae Rariores; or, descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants. London, Paris & Strassburg: Richard Taylor for Treuttel & Würtz, Treuttel jun. & Richter, 1829-1830-1832. 3 volumes in 12 original parts, 2° (550 x 375mm). 2 half-titles (no half-title to vol.II published), 4pp. 4° prospectus and preliminary progressive subscribers' list bound at front of first three parts, 4pp. final subscribers' list in part 4, double-page engraved map with hand-coloured routes, 294 fine hand-coloured plates (293 lithographic plates by Maxim Gauci [1 folding and numbered '222-223'] after Vishnupersaud [114], Gorachand [87], Charles M.Curtis [7], William Griffith [3] and others, printed by Engelmann, Graf, Coindet & Co. and others; 1 engraved plate by Weddell after Vishnupersaud [numbered '6']). (Plates 72-75 with 165 x 20mm. irregular section torn away from lower outer corner, just affecting imprint of plate 73, plate 71 with 80mm. tear to outer blank margin, a few other plates with small tears or slight soiling to blank margins.) Original cloth-backed paper wrappers, upper covers printed with lithographic titles on recto and with smaller format letterpress plate lists mounted on verso (some spotting and light soiling, parts 3 and 5 with significant sections of covers torn away). Provenance : Lady Sophia Raffles (wife of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, author's presentation copy, inscribed on upper cover of each part). LIMITED TO 254 COPIES, THIS COPY IN THE VERY RARE ORIGINAL PARTS PRESENTED TO THE WIDOW OF ONE OF WALLICH'S MOST IMPORTANT SPONSORS. The work includes some of the finest botanical illustrations in book form of many of the most exotic plants from the tropical zone. A worthy successor to William Roxburgh, Wallich was appointed superintendant of the Calcutta botanical garden in 1815. Drawing on the specimens collected during his own trips as well as plants supplied by Sir Stamford Raffles and numerous other contacts, Wallich employed the talents of many of the same artists that had worked for Roxburgh, the most notable being Vishnupersaud (or Vishnu Prasad) who Blunt reckoned the 'most talented of the native Indian artists' ( Fine Bird Books p.80). Wallich explored Nepal, Western Hindostan, Ava and Lower Burma, and when he returned to England in 1828 he brought with him a collection of about 8000 dried specimens, as well as a large number of original watercolour drawings executed from life. This work, undertaken with the enthusiastic patronage of the East India Company (they subscribed to 40 copies), was seen as an extension to Roxburgh's Plants of the Coromandel Coast (London: 1795-1820) and was published by subscription in 12 parts, priced at £2 10s per part between 1829 and 1832. Wallich writes 'the present Work consists of a selection of plants made chiefly from a series of 1200 drawings, executed under my direction by Native Artists' (preface, p.x). The translation of the drawings onto stone was carried out by the Maltese born Maxim Gauci, perhaps the greatest of the early lithographers of botanical subjects. Wallich thanks him for his contribution in the'Postscript', and, unusually, he goes on to acknowledge the contribution of the colourist John Clark The present copy, with the additional interest of Wallich's presentation inscriptions on the front cover of each part, is probably the most desirable to have appeared at auction in the last 25 years. In the preface Wallich acknowledges the help of Sir Stamford Raffles, who 'contributed plants from Penang, Singapur, and Bencoolen' and in a more lasting gesture named a variety of Dischidia for his late supporter ( Dischidia Rafflesiana , see plate 142). The overall condition is excellent and completely unrestored, with none of the leaves shaved, allowing the plates to be seen to their best advantage, and its untouched state means that it is possible to confirm that a half-title to vol.II was not publish