HILL, Sir John (1716?-1775) - photo 1
HILL, Sir John (1716?-1775) - photo 2
HILL, Sir John (1716?-1775) - photo 3

HILL, Sir John (1716?-1775)

Lot 159
10.07.2024 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 20 160
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1249809
Lot 159 | HILL, Sir John (1716?-1775)
Estimate value
£ 5 000 – 8 000
HILL, Sir John (1716?-1775)
The British Herbal. London: printed for T. Osborne and J. Shipton and others, 1756.
Very handsome, fully hand-coloured large-paper copy of this beautiful work on the flora and sylva of Great Britain. ‘The British Herbal is interesting for its classification of plants based on the forms of the corolla and the gynoecium, and for its criticisms of Linnaeus. Though the work is nomenclaturally important for its original publication of some generic names, Hill's new names have been rejected because the book does not consistently use binary forms.... The plates comprise more than 1500 plant-illustrations ... Pritzel and Grasse note colored plates; Dunthorne mentions only uncolored plates. Presumably the large-paper copies, at least, were colored’ (Hunt). ‘The genera and species are clearly described in The British Herbal, and the work is of importance as being one of the first publications to appear after the Species plantarum of 1753, the year internationally accepted as the starting-point for modern botanical nomenclature’ (Henrey). BM(NH) II, p.844; Dunthorne 128; Henrey 799; Hunt 557 (notes their large-paper copy as being 17.4" x 10.8" which is approx. 1-inch shorter than this copy); Nissen BBI 881; Pritzel 4063.

Folio (460 x 290mm). Title printed in red and black with hand-coloured engraved vignette, engraved frontispiece, coat-of-arms on dedication page and 75 plates, all hand-coloured by a contemporary hand. Contemporary red morocco, covers with gilt roll-tooled border of roses, spine with raised bands in 8 compartments, green gilt morocco lettering piece to second, the others densely tooled in gilt with small circles, volutes, foliate tools around a central small star, marbled endpapers, gilt turn-ins and edges (spine sunned and slightly dulled, some light stains to covers, extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: William Charles de Meuron Wentworth-FitzWilliam, the 7th Earl FitzWilliam (1872-1943; armorial bookplate, sold Sotheby’s 26-28 April 1948, lot 919) – Hugh Fattorini (1934-2005, bibliophile; pencilled note in his hand on flyleaf: 'Magnificent copy with contemporary colouring and splendid binding … Plesch copy uncoloured, neither Dunthorne nor Nissen note coloured copies. XLP? See Hunt measurements').
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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10.07.2024 – 10.07.2024
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