With 300 beautiful hand-coloured plates of flowers and plants

Philip Miller:

Figures of the most beautiful, useful, and uncommon Plants described in the Gardeners Dictionary, exibited on three hundred copper plates. 1-2.

London, printed for the author, 1771. Folio. 42,5 x 26,5 cms. VI + 100; + [2] + 101-200 + [4] pp. + 300 hand-coloured engraved plates (2 of which are folding: Agave & Arum).

Two volumes, contemporary tree calf, marbled endpapers. Expertly rebacked and slightly restored by the Beck & Son bindery, Stockholm. Bookplate of Seth Kempe (1857-1946). Slight wear / chipping to head and foot of spines, a patch of leather neatly replaced on lower cover of one volume. Two text leaves with small paper loss in outer corner, not affecting any text (pp. 37/8 in volume one, pp. 135/6 in volume two), plate 70 with corner tear (a small piece of paper coming loose, but present). Plate 293 unattractively discoloured / stained. Some slight foxing to text leaves at beginning and end of the volumes.

A reissue of the 1760 edition. Philipp Miller (1691-1771) was the chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular The Gardeners Dictionary. He was considered by Linnaeus as "the greatest gardener of his time".

Great Flower Books, p. 68. Nissen BBI 1378.

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