Rare 1755 Phillip Miller Large Folio Engraving, Pl. LV ASPARAGUS & ASPERULA

Description: 1755 Rare Large Folio Hand-Colored Copper-Plate Engraving from: F I G U R E SOf the most beautiful, useful, and uncommonP L A N T S DESCRIBED INThe GARDENERS DICTIONARY EXIBITED ONThree Hundred Copper Plates, By P H I L L I P M I L L E R, F. R. S. Fig. 1. ASPARAGUSFig. 2. ASPERULA This Folio originates from Phillip Miller's plates from his "Gardeners Dictionary", volumes titled "Figures of the most beautiful, useful, and uncommon Plants described in the Gardeners Dictionary, exibited on three hundred copper plates", London, printed for the author in 1771, on beautiful, cream-colored hand-laid, chain-lined cotton paper. The Volumes:The full title of this work is: "Figures of the most beautiful, useful, and uncommon plants described in The Gardeners Dictionary, exhibited on three hundred copper plates, accurately engraven after drawings taken from nature, with the characters of their flowers and seed-vessels, drawn when they were in their greatest perfection. London: Printed for the Author"This is Miller’s illustrated supplement to his overwhelmingly popular Gardeners Dictionary. While conceived as a complement to an earlier publication, Miller’s Figures of … Plants "is a sufficiently complete work and may be rated on its own merits" (Hunt). The plants illustrated were either engraved from drawings of specimens in the Chelsea Physic Garden or drawings supplied by Miller's numerous correspondents.The volumes present plants which, as Miller says in the preface "...are either curious in themselves, or may be useful in Trades, Medicine, &c., including the Figures of such new Plants as have not been noticed by any former Botanists."For the plants drawn from examples in the Garden, Miller employed Richard Lancake and two of the leading botanical artists and engravers of the period, Georg Dionysius Ehret and Johann Sebastian Miller (formerly Müller; see lot 39). The work was published by subscription in 50 monthly parts (each part with 6 plates) between 25 March 1755 and 30 June 1760; there were later editions in 1771 and 1809. The Artist:Richard Lancake, fl. 1760, was an English botanical illustrator best known for his contributions to Philip Miller's The Gardeners Dictionary. In 1768 Lancake started a papermaking factory in Paris The Author:Philip Miller, FRS. (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English botanist and gardener of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular The Gardeners Dictionary. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 until he was pressured to retire shortly before his death. According to the botanist Peter Collinson, who visited the physic garden in July 1764 and recorded his observation in his commonplace books, Miller "has raised the reputation of the Chelsea Garden so much that it excels all the gardens of Europe for its amazing variety of plants of all orders and classes and from all climates..." Miller corresponded with other botanists, and obtained plants from all over the world, many of which he cultivated for the first time in England and is credited as their introducer. His knowledge of living plants, for which he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, was unsurpassed in breadth in his lifetime. The Prints & Technique:These are Copperplate Line Engravings, where grooves in a sheet of polished copper are meticulously incised with a very sharp steel tool to duplicate the original drawing or painting into the metal. Many fine grooves are cut to become cross-hatching which adds the shadows & modelling. Etching ink is then rubbed into the fine grooves in the copper, the rest of the plate's polished surface is wiped clean, leaving ink only in the lines. It's then cranked through an etching press under tremendous pressure, with a sheet of thick cotton rag paper, forcing the ink in the grooves to be printed onto the paper. Coloring in these was done by hand with water colors.Every part of these prints was made by hand: Hand drawn & engraved on Copper which was hand-mined, smelted & rolled, printed onto handmade cotton rag paper, inked & colored with hand-ground pigments individually by hand, & they were usually hand sewn into handmade leather-bound books. Condition:Appears to be in Fair to good condition for a 250-year-old engraving. The hand-coloring appears to remain as beautiful as the day it was printed. Very little age-toning. Repaired tear from lower right edge. These prints are very old & may have imperfections expected with age, such as age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.Text Page(s): This one comes without the original text page. The listing photos include a scan of the title page for reference, it's not part of the listing. About these Gorgeous Plants:Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus Asparagus native to Eurasia. Widely cultivated as a vegetable crop, its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.Asparagus was once classified in the lily family, as were the related Allium species onions and garlic. Genetic research currently places lilies, Allium, and asparagus in three separate families: the Liliaceae, Amaryllidaceae, and Asparagaceae, respectively. The latter two are part of the order Asparagales.The English word asparagus derives from classical Latin but the plant was once known in English as sperage, from the Medieval Latin sparagus. This term itself derives from the Greek aspharagos or asparagos.Asparagus has been used as a vegetable owing to its distinct flavor, and in medicine due to its diuretic properties and its purported function as an aphrodisiac. It is pictured as an offering on an Egyptian frieze dating to 3000 BC. In ancient times, it was also known in Syria and in the Iberian Peninsula. Greeks and Romans ate it fresh when in season, and dried the vegetable for use in winter. Emperor Augustus coined the expression "faster than cooking asparagus" for quick action.Asperula, commonly known as woodruff, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae which contains coffee. It has a wide distribution area from Europe, northern Africa, temperate and subtropical Asia to Australasia. Size: 17 x 11 inches approximately. Shipping: Multiple prints combine into one flattened medium flat-rate box. If you'd like to combine & need more time to choose, please send a message & we'll do our best to oblige. If you're assessed multiple shipping for one combined package, we'll endeavor to refund any overage asap. Thanks for Visiting!

Price: 59 USD

Location: Great Barrington, Massachusetts

End Time: 2025-02-05T03:22:29.000Z

Shipping Cost: 15 USD