MORDANT DE LAUNAY Jean Claude Michel Herbier général de l’amateur, contenant la description, l’histoire, les propriétés et la culture des végétaux utiles et agréables.

Nissen, BBI, 2323 & Sitwell, p. 159 (erroneously mentioning that quire 384 was not published)  ; Stafleu-Cowan, 4952 ; see Dunthorne, 32 (for Herbier de l’amateur, Bruxelles edition 1828-1835).

First edition illustrated with 575 engraved and finely coloured plates. A superb copy printed on large paper and bound by Bibolet.

This magnificent and important work is complete with the 575 plates required (572, as well as two double-numbered quires 171-172 with 2 plates, and plate 199bis), drawn from life and accompanied by a sheet of descriptive text, each flower being the subject of a printed notice, generally one double-sided page.

The beautiful plates, most of which were drawn by Pancrace Bessa, were engraved by Pierre François Barrois, Séraphin Goulet, Antoine François Dennel, Bigant, Lejeune and other artists. A pupil of Redouté and Van Spaendock, Pancrace Bessa (1772-1846) was a protégé of the Duchess of Berry, to whom he taught floral painting. From 1823 onwards, he was responsible for providing the Natural History Museum with flower paintings and contributed to the illustration of several other botanical works. Bessa’s original plates for the Herbier général de l’amateur were painted for the future Charles X, who presented them in 1826 to his niece the Duchess of Berry, who in turn presented them to her sister the Empress of Brazil.

Published over a period of 13 years in 96 issues, the first 11 of which featured texts by Mordant de Launay (1750-1816), the rest were edited by Jean Louis Auguste Loiseleur-Deslonghamps (1774-1849). Mordant de Launay was sub-librarian at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle when it opened to the public in 1794 and was then director of the menagerie from 1798 to 1801.

The work, produced at the request of the future Charles X, is dedicated to the King. The author states in his preface that it was written for ‘the library of the scholar, the man of taste, the cabinet of the amateur, and the studio of the artist’. This is followed by a long note on the botanical works published in Europe, in which the author stresses the superior quality of the coloured engravings included in this luxurious production: ‘This advantage, which the Herbier de l’Amateur has over the other works with figures that preceded it, comes from the fact that the printing of the plates, instead of being done in colour, is done in grey, which makes it possible to use, in illuminating, a truth of tone and colour that is not supported by colour printing’. The botanist and artist went on to praise the usefulness of this fine publication for ‘artists and manufacturers in certain genres, such as decorative painters, manufacturers of porcelain, earthenware, painted canvas, wallpaper, embroiderers, etc.’.

Nissen and Sitwell indicate that quire 384 would not have been published; it is indeed present here in double quire 383/384. The other double quires are: 79/80; 100/101; 140/141; 177-180; 366-368; 413-415; 435-437; 515-516.

A very fine copy bound by Bibolet, despite a few slightly browned plates in volume VI and a few slightly spotted text leaves. Complete copies in uniform binding are very rare.