The original edition of a first hand account of the creation, at the hands of English expatriates, of what would become a legendary Venetian garden, giardino eden, on La Guidecca in the Venetian lagoon. Located behind the Redentore, this one-time vegetable patch was transformed by Frederic (great uncle of the Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden) and Carolyn Eden ( the sister of Gertrude Jekyll) into a little English pleasure ground of pollarded willows, roses, Madonna lilies, irises, etc. beginning in 1884. While importing their own native tastes, the Edens took care to respect the local character of their grounds, “ Building on formal lines made by the canals, an abandoned orchard had been crossed with straight walks covered by 600-700 yards of square-topped vine-clad pergola.” (Festing, S. GERTRUDE JEKYLL p. 154). Traditional structures and ornaments were used. Eden includes an interesting account of well-making on the island and in the garden. The prominence of the Edens in the expatriate community brought notable guests to the garden, as did the caché of later residents such as Princess Aspasia of Greece and her daughter and son-in-law, the King and Queen of Yugoslavia. Henry James, Anna de Noailles, Maurice Barres and Jean Cocteau are also associated with the spot. D’Annunzio set a scene there in his IL FUOCO. In LES DELICES DE L’ITALIE, Jean Louis Vaudoyer calls the garden “the most alluring place in the world to abandon oneself to melancholy.” (as quoted in Weal, M.T., POSTFACE; A GARDEN IN VENICE ). The garden was locked up after the death of its last occupant, but garden historian John Hall obtained entrance and wrote a description for HORTUS, Autumn 2003. “ the most alluring place...” Small 4to (23 x 18 cm); (vi) +135 + (1) pp. with decorative head and tail pieces, initial letters and text figures, from older engravings, including some from the Dream of Polyphilis, + frontispiece and 16 full page illustrations from photographs, with tissue guards, hors texte.

First English edition, translated, with additions, by Richard Bradley. "This was the first treatise on cuttings and graftings, and it made Agricola famous." (Hunt 452). Georg Andreas Agricola was a German doctor from Regensburg whose discoveries regarding plant propagation aroused significant interest at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In a book entitled NEU- UND NIE ERHÖRTER DOCH IN DER NATUR UND VERNUNFFT WOHLGEGEGRÜNDETER VERSUCH DER UNIVERSAL VERMEHRUNG ALLER BÄUME, STAUDEN UND BLUMEN-GEWÄCHSE (1716-1717) he first published details of his methods, including the use of a plaster he called "vegetable mummy," to refute exaggerated claims made about his discoveries by another writer. Bradley prepared this English translation and added to it his own preface as well as a translation of the preface from the French edition. The text is illustrated with copies of the plates from the original German edition. These plates depict examples of the regenerative process described by Agricola along with the grafting techniques, tools and structures employed in the various operations. In publishing Agricola's discoveries in England Bradley was doing what he seemed to do best: publicizing the latest horticultural advances and theories at a moment close to their inception. Hunt 452; Henrey 411 Royal 4to (27 x 22 cm); (xxiv) + 300 + (iv) pp. + 22 plates (some folding) with 34 engravings.

First edition. Mawson's enormous success as a landscape architect led him to town planning projects in Bolton, Southport, Athens, Calgary and Vancouver. He served as president of the Town Planning Institute and became one of Britain's foremost early town planners. His CIVIC ART provided an impressive text book on his ideas for town planning, similar in character to the later editions of his better known ART AND CRAFT OF GARDEN MAKING, the fourth edition of which appeared in the following year and which greatly resembled CIVIC ART in format and style of illustration. Mawson stressed the need for a deliberate system of aesthetics for town planning and relied heavily on examples from his own practice to illustrate his theories. The volume is divided into four parts: the theory of Civic Art; the practice of Civic Art; examples of town planning; and examples of public parks and town gardens. Appendices concerning trees and shrubs are also included. Folio (35.6 x 26.5 cm); (vi) + 376 pp. with color frontispiece and one color plate, decorative chapter titles, numerous reproductions of plans, engravings, drawings, and photographs.

First edition of a popular early 19th century French work on bourgeois villa gardens. Lalos, who identifies himself as an architect on the title page, succeeded with 5 editions of this work describing, in varying degrees of detail, numerous parks or gardens in various departments of France where he wholly or partly contributed to the creation. His work preceded that of Thouin, but, as Michel Conan has pointed out, depended almost entirely on the theoretical work of René Louis Girardin. "This was clearly a book of aesthetic theory aimed at potential patrons. In this respect, the fact that it was republished five times may be taken as an indication of garden tastes among landowners from 1817 to 1832, many of whom belonged to the bourgeoisie." (Michel Conan in HUNT, J.D. AND CONAN, Michel, TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN FRENCH GARDEN ART, p. 168.) The engraved plates show an artificial waterfall, a plan of the cascades and the lake of Lamotte, a section of a cascade and a plan of the pond of the park at Liverdy. Ganay 184. 8vo (19 x 12.5 cm); viii + 216 pp. + 4 folding engraved plates including two plans.

First edition. The author was a garden architect and engineer from Grenôble and Lyon. His "Essay On Gardens" begins with a general discussion of contemporary European garden design, including observations drawn from visits to gardens in Germany, England and France, followed by reflections on garden design in general (especially the jardin anglais) and specific recommendations for the layout and planting of gardens and parks. The second section of the book presents the author's plans for the Imperial gardens to be built next to the planned Napoleonic palace on the peninsula between the banks of the Saône and Rhône near the center of Lyon. The folding engraved plan for this project shows an extensive landscape garden in the "style anglais" to the south of the palace and a smaller and more formal area to the north. Ganay 164. 8vo (21 x 13.5 cm); viii + 119 pp. + folding plan.

The first state, before the number (of two). Vesme no. 841. Chone/Grivel. STEPHANO DELLA BELLA 1610-1664, no. 42-4. A richly evocative etching of Pan and Fame's grotto in the Renaissance Italian villa garden at Pratolino. The impression is a double view, presenting opposite ends of the grotto side by side. On opposite sides of the statue representing the river Mugrone are seen Pan playing his flute and Fame sounding her trumpet, both of them animated as hydraulic automatons. This is one of six views by Della Bella which depict this stunning Medici garden, created by the Florentine architect Buontalenti. "In terms of hydraulic wonders, the fountains and grottoes of Pratolino are surely the apogee... Buontalenti emerges as the foremost inventor of grottoes in Italy." (Miller HEAVENLY CAVES, pp. 47, 49) Impression measuring 25 x 37 cm; signed SD Bella between the two views

“Margery Fish and Vita Sackville-West were their own head gardeners... their great accomplishment as garden writers was to make the English cottage-garden style a design paradigm for gardeners whose properties were only somewhat larger than those of the cottagers of old.” (ROGERS, Elizabeth Barlow. WRITING THE GARDEN p. 176.) Each of the cards offered here from Fish shows a scene, photographed or drawn, from her famous Somerset garden or cottage, East Lambrook Manor. Two of the photographs are identified as being from the publication, “ The Field”. One is from a wood engraving by D.P. Fishur. In one card Fish writes a note telling the recipient that she is at work on a new book, COTTAGE GARDENS. She says here, “ I want to illustrate it with typical cottage gardens - small, packed and picturesque.” “Cottage gardens - small, packed, and picturesque.” Five separate cards, four signed in pen; one dated 1964. One card contains the signed messsage opposite the card’s printed message; all are identified as being issued from East Lambrook Manor. The cards vary in size from 17.2 x 12.2 cm to 14 x 8.9 cm and are printed in black and white.

First edition of this important reproduction of a selection of Du Cerceau's original drawings, now in the British Museum, for his 1517 and 1579 volumes published as LES PLUS EXCELLENTS BASTIMENTS DE FRANCE. According to Ward," The illustrations of the present volume present a fairly complete picture of architectural evolution in France during the sixteenth century, and comprise some of the finest specimens of each phase." Ward says that the drawings are richer in detail and larger in scale than the old engravings, and "some of these also vary considerably from the published version..." The reproductions are supplemented by Ward's account of Du Cerceau's life and work, descriptions of the chateaux and gardens designed by various architects, and an index of persons. Scarce in this condition. Folio (39.5 x 28 cm); xi + (iii) + 36 pp. with text illustrations mostly from plans and with 27 plates from drawings.

Victor Petit was an artist, lithographer and chromolithographer who documented the picturesque architecture and gardens built in and around Paris during the Second Empire. He was also a member of numerous archaelogical associations. Habitations Champêtres was one of four complementary works directed at the newly wealthy and culturally ambitious bourgeoisie of the time: the others were MAISONS DE COMPAGNE DES ENVIRONS DE PARIS, PARCS ET JARDINS DES ENVIRONS DE PARIS, AND PETITES CONSTRUCTIONS PITTORESQUES. In the present work the focus is on the variety of country house styles found in different regions of France and, to a small extent, in England and Italy. The parks, grounds arrangements, garden structures and outbuildings are also depicted. Belvederes, garden pavilions, rustic cabanas and the like are shown along with views of parks such as the Parc de Pinon in Picardie or the Parc du Marchais in Burgundy. Distinctions are made among maisons champêtres, maisons de plaisance, and maisons bourgeoises; all are shown in grounds settings. The work was available from the publishers in simple black and white lithography or in coloured lithography; individual plates could also be ordered separately, either coloured or in black and white. The present copy offers 30 plates in black and white and the remaining 70 hand finished to varying degrees in light color. They offer an interesting contrast to the forceful colors available as shown in sample plates from Petites Constructions and Parcs Et Jardins Des Environs De Paris which are laid in here. Ganay 254, but the Ganay copy does not have the title page. 4to (36.5 x 27 cm) Loose in portfolio, as issued. Partially colored title page + 100 lithographed plates, 70 of which are coloured to varying degrees, 30 are in black and white, plus, 8 coloured lithographed plates,, from PETITES CONSTRUCTIONS PITTORESQUES and one from PARCS ET JARDINS laid in.

Second German edition of Dezallier's LA THÉORIE ET LA PRATIQUE DU JARDINAGE. This edition is complete with the full complement of 39 plates, including frontispiece. The work was first published in French in 1709 and then reprinted and enlarged in several later editions. It effectively codified the design principles of the French formal garden as established by LeNôtre and continued in print for nearly three-quarters of the eighteenth century. "France did not become mistress of Europe in garden art merely because of such of her examples as could be copied; of almost equal importance was the wide popularity of a book which first appeared anonymously in France in 1709 under the title THEORIE ET PRATIQUE DU JARDINAGE... Never before did a book lay down the principles of any style so surely and so intelligibly in instructive precepts." (Gothein, HISTORY OF GARDEN ART, volume II, pg 111). The most prominent Germanic exponent of the French formal style was the Austrian F. A. Danreiter, who spent several years in France in the 1720s before returning to Salzburg, where he passed the remainder of his career serving as Garden Director of the major gardens there. Danreiter's translation of Dezallier, first published in 1731, was the single most important source for the spread of the French formal style across German-speaking Europe during the eighteenth century. While the title page of this edition calls for only 33 plates, the present copy includes a full set of 39 plates. The plate count varies among different copies of this work, even within the same edition, with many copies having either 33 or 35 plates. Copies with all 39 plates are uncommon. Berlin Cat 3464 (1731 ed); Springer pg. 37. 8vo (18 x 11.5 cm); folding title + (vii) + 368 + (2) pp. + 38 folding engraved plates + engraved frontispiece.

First edition, presentation copy to Gordon Knox, signed by Forestier. “(Forestier’s) friends noted his talents and asked him to design their grounds, and as a preparatory study for this he planned seventeen imaginary gardens, which later formed the central portion of his book “Jardins”.” (Fox, Helen Morgenthau. in “Jean C.N. Forestier”, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, 1930, pp. 93). Forestier was Conservateur of the Paris parks, city planner, designer of modern gardens, such as the rose and iris gardens at Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, and authority on the design of Spanish and Arabic gardens. In JARDINS, Forestier went beyond the imaginary gardens proposed for friends to cover details of his approach to terraces, lawns, stairs, fountains, bassins, benches and tilework. A long list of his recommendations for best roses is included. Additionally, he offers illustration and commentary on gardens that made his fame: that of Joseph Guy at Beziers; of Montjuich at the Barcelona exposition; and of La Casa Del Rey Moro in Andalousia. “In his designs, plants partially erase, rather than reinforce, the rigor of the plan. This play between the grace of the vine and the strict line of the post situated Forestier precisely at the juncture of the jardin à la française and the cubist/modernist garden.” (Imbert, THE MODERNIST GARDEN IN FRANCE, p. 25) A signed presentation copy Small folio (32.5 x 25.2 cm); 240 unnumbered pp., profusely illustrated from drawings and plans, full page and in text.

First Dutch edition of the most influential work on garden design of the eighteenth century. It effectively codified the design principles of the French formal garden and continued in print for at least six decades. "France did not become mistress of Europe in garden art merely because of such of her examples as could be copied; of almost equal importance was the wide popularity of a book which first appeared anonymously in France in 1709 under the title THEORIE ET PRATIQUE DU JARDINAGE... Never before did a book lay down the principles of any style so surely and so intelligibly in instructive precepts." (Gothein, HISTORY OF GARDEN ART, volume II, pg 111.) This edition, published in Holland, is the first of many pirated editions to appear outside of France. It carefully follows the original Paris edition, even in its pagination, and the plates are nicely engraved by J. Lamsvelt with strong dark impressions. 4to (25.8 x 20 cm); (xii) + 208 pp. with numerous engraved text illustrations and ornaments + 32 folding plates (chiefly garden plans).