PLANTAE SELECTAE...

Augsburg, 1750-1773. 10 parts, bound as one. FIRST EDITION, one of the greatest eighteenth-century botanical works. Ten engraved titles, heightened in red and gold, 81 (of 100) magnificent hand-colored engraved plates by Johann Jacob Haid and Johann Elias Haid after drawings by Georg Dionysius Ehret, each with the first word of the caption heightened in gold Large folio, (appr 52 by 35 cm), in contemporary boards backed in vellum and with vellum corner-pieces, the spine with brown and green morocco labels lettered in gilt. 81 plates and ten engraved titles. A very bright and finely coloured copy, beautifully preserved, the titles and colouring all richly rendered, the binding well preserved. One of the greatest eighteenth-century botanical works. Christoph Trew, a physician and amateur botanist, had for a number of years been an admirer of Ehret's work. Ehret, a brilliant botanical artist, was born in Heidelberg in 1710 and originally worked as a gardener, practicing drawing in his spare time. His artistic abilities led him to the service of a Regensburg banker named Leskenkohl who had commissioned him to copy plates in van Rheede tot Draakestein, Hortus indicus malabaricus. It was during this period that Trew met Ehret. Ehret, through works such as the PLATAE SELECTAE would become one of the most influential European botanical artists of all time.