British Flower Garden

London: W. Simkin and R. Marshall; James Ridgway, 1823. The British Flower Garden; Containing Coloured Figures & Descriptions of the Most Ornamental & Curious Hardy Flowering Plants, Including Annuals, Biennials, & Perennials; With Their Scientific and English Names... [First Series]. London: W. Simkin and R. Marshall, 1823-1829. [With] The British Flower Garden (Series the Second)... London: James Ridgway 1831-1838.

First Edition. Complete in seven octavo volumes. (9 5/8 x 6 1/8 inches; 245 x 155 mm). With 712 hand-colored engraved plates, some of which are folding, by Weddell, F.W. Smith, and others after E.D. Smith, J. Hart and others.

With the rare 16 page "A Monograph on the Subordo V. of Amaryllideae, containing the Narcissineae" by Adrian Hardy Haworth. Found in Second Seeries, Volume I.

Contemporary half green morocco over marbled boards. Calf ruled in gilt. Spines stamped and lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt. Marbled endpapers. Mild rubbing to edges and corners. Some occasional light toning to text, but plates are vivid and clean. Overall a beautiful set.

Sweet (1783-1835), a well-known horticulturalist, fellow of the Linnean Society since 1812. "In 1810 Sweet entered as a partner in the Stockwell nursery, and when that was dissolved in 1815, became foreman to Messrs. Whitley, Brames, & Milne, nurserymen, of Fulham, till 1819, when he entered the service of Messrs. Colvill. While in their employ he was charged with having received a box of plants knowing them to have been stolen from the royal gardens, Kew, but was acquitted after trial at the Old Bailey on 24 Feb. 1824. In 1826 he left the Colvills, and till 1831 occupied himself almost wholly in the production of botanical works, while still cultivating a limited number of plants in his garden at Parson's Green, Fulham" (D.N.B.). Hunt. Nissen, BBI,1923.

"After 1826 he devoted himself almost entirely to botanical publications such as the present work. In 1831, he started a second series to this work; after his death in 1835, the publisher, James Ridgway, continued the work until December 1837. " (Christie's).

HBS 68538.

$9,500.