Buckingham: B. Seeley 1769. Stowe, in Buckinghamshire, was the most celebrated English landscape garden of the eighteenth century. "Much visited and publicized, it had enormous influence on garden design, especially after experiments there in 'natural' gardening in the 1730s. It is historically important because it remained at the growing point of taste throughout the 18th c., exhibiting every stage of the garden revolution. Its final phase of idealized landscape survives relatively intact." (OXFORD COMPANION TO GARDENS, page 537). Stowe's fame brought it many visitors, and Benton Seeley, a local bookseller and engraver, published its first guide book in 1744. Seeley's guides went through several editions, being continually revised and enlarged over the course of the century, and did much to spread the influence of Stowe as a model for the English landscape garden. Jefferson owned at least two of them. In 1797 Seeley's son completely revised the work, including a new and different series of plates. 8vo (21 x 13 cm); 44 pp. + 20 engraved plates (2 folding) including folding garden plan

London: George Allen 1892. First edition. Piggott's personal floral diary of Japan describes not only the seasonal progression of flowers in his own garden there, but also native flowers, trees and plants as they appear in the country's landscape and as they appear as decorations or symbols in Japanese ceremonial and everyday life. In addition to describing his own garden, he takes the reader on a tour of Count Okuma's garden at Waseda near Tokyo and on a June walk in the mountains around Miiyanoshta. Illustrated with reproductions of drawings by Alfred East and sketches by the author, including two full page color reproductions from his sketchbook. The entire design of the book is also a lovely example of Japonisme with color decorative designs adapted from Japanese lacquer boxes, flower-types cast from Japanese models by Messrs. Clowes, etc. 4to (27.5 x 21.5 cm); (viii) + 60 + (11) pp. with colored designs on half title, title page and dedication page, numerous text decorations including reproductions of photos and sketches, 4 black and white full page reproductions from paintings and 2 full page color lithographed plates from sketches.

Paris: Panckoucke 1802. The enlarged and partially revised second edition, which includes significant material supplementing the original version of 1776. The newly added preface (128 pages) provides, among other things, an extended commentary on writings on garden design published since the first edition. There are also 75 pages of end notes and a new 100 page section on trees, consisting primarily of a "Tableau Dendrologique" listing the various features of over 1000 varieties of trees. Morel's THEORIE, following shorter works by Girardin and Watelet, presented the most thorough treatise on the new theories of natural garden design which dominated French taste at the end of the 18th century. It was also the first treatise on garden design in the natural style (French or English) to have been written by a professional rather than an amateur. Morel's practical experience is evident throughout, which may help account for the high esteem in which the book was held by French landscape gardeners far into the nineteenth century. Drawing heavily on Whately's OBSERVATIONS ON MODERN GARDENING, Morel rejected the formal symmetry of classical French gardens in favor of the picturesque and "natural" style associated with the English. He did not, however, actually visit England and its gardens until after the publication of the first edition, and the comments he added to this edition are the first to reflect first-hand experience of the places Whately had described. All these additions make this the generally preferred edition for purposes of study. Ganay 98. Two volumes, 8vo (21 x 14 cm); (viii) + cxxviii + 234 + (1, errata), (iv) + 340 + (2, errata) pp. + engraved frontispiece.

Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University 1903. An interesting original photo-illustrated typed manuscript presented for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Horticulture and Forestry at Ohio State University. Asserting that "the one who takes the most interest in home surrounding lays the best foundation for other undertakings," Long proposes solutions to making a country home where no previous improvements exist and discusses, to a lesser extent, conditions where old improvements are in need of change and improvement. His chapters cover: selecting the site (for convenience and beauty); laying out the grounds and arranging the buildings (outbuilding the neighbors is "an unworthy motive"); planning the country residence (convenience, beauty, economy of space and durability); grading and general improvements (re-use excavated soil and aim for luxuriant lawn and shrubbery); planting trees and shrubs (plant common trees of the forest rather than "puffed up varieties of catalogs" and plant with an eye to the vista); designing walks, drives and entrances (no right angles!) improving older homes (the lawn is of paramount importance). Following the text are nine full-page original photographs mounted on heavy stock with text opposite offering commentary. Long considers these as supplementary to his thesis. Figure 1 is a perfectly planted lawn with a woman in turn-of-the century dress holding a basket of flowers; Figure 2 displays successful street planting and a horse-drawn carriage; Figure 3 is a tree and shrub planting on small grounds; Figure 4 shows planting as background and protection; Figure 5 demonstrates planting for a "cozy corner" with two figures in period dress; Figure 6 - the placement of a large home within the grounds; Figure 7 - a well-planted lawn sweeping around to the rear of the house; Figure 8 is the scene at Figure 1 from a different viewpoint; Figure 9 reveals the open effect created by continuing planting around the house. These amateur photographs have great appeal and certainly demonstrate widely applied principles which created much of the middle class residential American landscape at the turn of the century. Bound typed manuscript, 27 x 21 cm, 28 unnumbered pp. with text typed (or mimeographed) on rectos only + 9 plates of original photographs, measuring 12 x 15.7 cm, with 9 ff. opposite providing typed commentary; a few tissue guards to photos removed , but laid in at front.

Paris: Librarie Hachette, 1964. One of 150 copies on Velin de Rives, "Imprimé spécialement pour/ MONSIEUR ANDRE MALRAUX/Ministere D'État / Chargé Des Affaires Culturelles" signed and inscribed by the author, "Hommage de l'auteur". Menars, located on the Loire, began in the 17th century as a classical French garden and chateau. For a brief period (1760-1764), it served as the residence residence of Madame de Pompadour, who added her personal touch to the chateau with the help of architect, Jacques-Ange Gabriel. Following her death, her brother, the marquis de Marigny, engaged Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot to further develop the site. The exuberant drawings of Anne Français fill this colorful book with impressions of visits to Menars in winter and in spring. While leading the reader through the interior and exterior spaces, she often succeeds in demonstrating their interrelationship. Accompanying text offers an overview of the history of Menars. A very charming book, printed by Mourlot and entirely designed by Français, known venting the concept of "ionnisme" in painting. 8vo (25.5 x 18 cm); (ii) + (xiv) + 17-66 + (10) pp. with text illustrations on every page printed in color and black and white; author's signed presentation on the limitation page.

(Boston) Louis Prang (1864). Six scarce and lovely chromolithographed views of various sites and structures in Central Park as they appeared within the first decade of its opening. These are album cards printed by America's prolific chromolithographer Louis Prang and designed for inclusion in an album or scrapbook. There were 36 cards issued in total during this period, 12 per series. By 1869, another 2 series, titled a bit differently, were issued, making a total of 60 cards in all. Our six include: "Abode of the Swans; "The Music Temple"; "The Tower"; "Ornamental Bridge"; "The Drive". and "The Bridle Path". With the exception of the "Abode of the Swans", where, of course, the swans gliding in their pond are the focus, the scenes are peopled showing current dress and fashion. "(Prang's) publication of album cards was an especially happy idea. In the late nineteenth century an album holding colorful cards was found on the center table of every parlor. The cards were put up in envelopes containing twelve cards each, and their subjects included flowers, leaves, birds, butterflies, animals, marine and landscape views." (McClinton. THE CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS OF LOUIS PRANG, page 4). We find a listing for the whole collection only in the Avery Library at Columbia. Six chromolithographed cards, each measuring approximately 10.4 x 6 cm. with lithographed titles.

Paris: L. Curmer; V. Lecou 1851. The first color illustrated edition of this classic garden meditation by the French novelist, journalist and floriculturist, Alphonse Karr. The text is composed as a series of letters to a friend whose departure for exotic travel has created in the narrator the urge to demonstrate that truly exotic traveling can be accomplished entirely within the carefully observed world of his garden. Thus we are introduced to keen observations of insect and flower life, to flower lore, themes of metamorphosis, much discussion of the major flowers (such as the rose and tulip), color in the garden and nature, the succession of flowers with the seasons, etc. "Les saisons qui se renouvellent sont les climats qui voyagent et qui me viennent trouver. Vos longs voyages ne sont que des visites fatigantes que vous allez rendre au saisons..." There are many departures into memory and historical association, but all is based upon the life drama of the world underfoot in the garden. It is, in a way, a work of romantic ecology, scientifically informed, but directed by the beauty and passion of the observed garden. The wood engraved text illustrations and decorations are by noted artists of the period: MM. Freeman, L. Marvy, Steinheil, Meissonier, Gavarni, Daubigny and Catenacci. In this first edition with full page color plates there are also eight flowers depicted: rose, campanula, dipladenie noble, gardenia, fuchsia, azalea, camellia and lapagerie. The text, without the color plates, first appeared in 1845. Carteret III-325. Large 8vo (27 x 18 cm); half title and title page + 416 pp. with numerous wood-engraved text illustrations + 8 color plates with printed tissue guards.

(Paris: chez Bance l'Ainé) n.d. ca. 1807. A rare suite of eight aquatint views of the gardens of the Tuileries at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They are as follows: Vue du Grand Bassin prise derrière la Statue de L'Automne; Bosquet des Lutteurs ; Méléagre, Allée des Orangers; Bosquet du Centaure Chiron; Palais des Tuileries a l'Entrée de l'Allée des Orangers; Apollon et Daphné; Vue prise près du grand Bassin; Escalier du Milieu de la Terrasse du cote de la Rivière. In addition to structures, large trees, edifices and ornaments, including sculpture, there are people, including children, in contemporary dress and, occasionally, animals, enlivening each scene. Two copies in CCFR are described as "8 estampes aquatint" and the BNF notes that the publication date is arrived at from the dates when the illustrated statues were known to have been present in the gardens. Rare as a complete set; OCLC records only one copy in the US (Dumbarton Oaks). Eight aquatint engravings, numbers engraved, excepting numbers 2 and 5, impressions measure 24 cm by 19 cm; bound together on stubs