n.p: N.P, n.d. (ca. 1900?). A somewhat mysterious piece on art vellum having the appearance of a mailing or shipping label, but, surely being an elaborate mock-up for one or the other. “The design is signed in a monogram for “R H sc”. The sender’s address is “ Clos de la Garoupe/ Cap d’Antibes/ Alpes-Maritimes. “ in decorative black lettering. Opposite is the message:” Les Fleurs sont expédiées aussitôt qu’elles sont coupées.” Below this is an address space beginning with a decorative “M” and below, “Spécialité d’Anémones /et de la Fraises. This text is arranged in the upper diagonal space of the piece. In the lower diagonal is a splendid design of a young woman holding strawberries and surrounded by anemones. This illustration is enhanced in green, gray and rose. The Cap d’Antibes was a strong horticultural region in the 19th century. Clos de la Garoupe was once a farm ( or nursery?) before Antibes became the playground of the rich. Flowers from Cap d’Antibes. Impression 17 x 23.5 on sheet measuring 28 x 35 cm. With custom matting.

Knutsford: 1868. A wonderful picture of the rigour demanded in mid-nineteenth century local English horticultural shows. Following the list of various officers and dignitaries come the rules, followed by the various exhibition categories. For professional gardeners there are 30 classes of entry. These range from caladiums to hollyhocks, cut roses to miniature gardens for 1st and 2nd prizes (20/- the highest, being for stove or greenhouse plants in bloom.) For the amateurs, another 18 classes from ferns, foliaged geraniums, pansies, round hand bouquets to British wild plants improved for garden decoration. The highest award here for ferns, at 10/-). Classes open to all are dishes of fruits (25 varieties). The largest category with 60 classes is for Cottagers with displays ranging from best box hive of bees to the “best regulated, neatest, and most productive Cottage Garden, within three miles of Knutsford Parish Church, to be inspected twice during the season ”. This latter gets the top prize of 20/-. There is a small category for florists and nurserymen from any distance. With a two page list of subscribers, a full list of committee members, patrons and officers and two pages of very strict rules. We have not located this item in OCLC, COPAC or the Lindley Library, RHS. Stitched pamphlet, 12 mo (17 x 10.4 cm); (xii) pp. including subscribers’ list and balance sheet.

Leipzig: in de Schäferschen buchhandlung, 1803. A rare horticultural manual by Johann Heinrich Seidel, widely regarded as the "Father of Dresdener Horticulture." After completing his apprenticeship at the Großer Garten in Dresden in 1764, he embarked on a seven-year Gesellenwanderung though Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, England and France. During his travels he spent significant time at Het Loo, the Jardin des Plantes, Chiswick, and Kew while building important contacts with head gardeners throughout Europe. After returning to Dresden and taking over as court gardener, Seidel used those contacts to build one of the most important plant collections of its day, reaching 4300 species by 1806. Many of the choicest of these plants are described in the text. Seidel was one of the first German gardeners to breed camellias, but he also had a particular interest in Chinese dwarf plants and devoted an entire short chapter at the end of the book to promoting their interest. The colour frontispiece shows a Chinese gardener carrying several potted dwarf shrubs and fruit trees balanced on a pole across his shoulder. The name F. G. Leonhardi also appears on the title page, but Leonhardi was an economist and historian who wrote books on a variety of subjects. He is unlikely to have made much contribution to the horticultural content of the work. It is surprisingly rare. OCLC locates only 4 copies, of which three in Germany and one in Denmark. KVK adds one more. By Johann Heinrich Seidel, the “Father of Dresdener Horticulture” 16mo (17.2 x 10.3 cm); viii + 259 + (4) pp. + colour frontispiece and 2 engraved plates.

Bruxelles: 1849. First and apparently only edition. With an engraved frontispiece of a view taken from within the park looking towards the Palais de la Nation designed by Gilles-Barnabé Guimard who, together with Joachim Zinner, provided the overall plans for the park and Place Royal in the 18th century. The four “chants” of the poem evoke events and people in the region’s history through encounters with the park’s sculptures of classical and historical figures, its structures, etc. Of particular interest for Schoonen’s 28 pages of notes which provide detailed descriptions of the park, its plantings, layout, views and associated history. Scarce. In OCLC we locate only one copy at Utrecht and one at Vlaamse Erfgredbibliotheek. 8vo (17.2 x 12.5 cm); engraved frontispiece +92 pp with 2 tailpieces + 1 engraved plate.

Paris: Chez Pissot, 1776. First edition of the most substantial and popular original French work to advocate the natural landscape style of gardening in France. Morel never visited England, thus his ideas followed more directly from French examples (including his own gardens); nevertheless, he also drew inspiration from the published theories of Whately and Watelet and from the influence of his close association with Girardin at Ermenonville. Morel trained as an architect and geographical engineer, but his long career was focused almost entirely on garden design. He worked on at least 50 parks and gardens, including: Guiscard, Ermenonville, Casson, Launay, and La Malmaison. Extensive descriptions of Guiscard and Ermenonville are used here as examples to illustrate his ideas, although his account of Ermenonville claims more personal credit for its design than is appropriately due. But however significant Morel's activities as a creator of gardens may have been, it was as the pre-eminent theorist of natural garden design that he had the greatest impact. Of all French gardeners of the picturesque school, he stood furthest from the fashionable and decorative anglo-chinois aspects of garden design and advocated a style more purely imitative of nature. As such, his ideas were far more influential on the later "style paysagiste" than those of his contemporaries, and in many respects formed the (often unacknowledged) theoretical foundation for much of French garden design throughout the 19th century. The pre-eminent French theorist of natural garden design of his time. Ganay 98; Berlin Cat. 3469; Musset-Pathay 1822. 8vo (18 x 12cm); (viii) + 397 + (3) pp.; page 140 misnumbered p. 148.