Familiar Garden Flowers Complete in 5 Finely Bound Books with Some 200 Colour Plates Circa 1880

This lovely set, comprising series 1 - 5, is figured by Staffordshire born Frederick Edward Hulme F.L.S., F.S.A (1841-1909), naturalist and artist, who was appointed art and drawing master at Marlborough College in 1870. It was about this time that his best known work, Familiar Wild Flowers was published, with Familiar Garden Flowers published later. The beautiful tissue guarded chromolithographs, 40 to each volume as well as monochrome text illustrations, show the depth of his artistic ability in this arena. The extensive supporting text is provided by (James) Shirley Hibberd (1825 - 1890), one of the most popular and successful gardening writers of the Victorian era. He was the best-selling editor of three gardening magazines and wrote over a dozen books on gardening and several more on natural history and related subjects. He is acknowledged as having helped establish the whole consumer industry in amateur gardening that we have today.

Finely bound in contemporary polished half green morocco with gilt decoration, marbled boards, end papers and page edges. Height 19.4cms. depth 13.8cms and the combined width some 13.4cms.

Provenance. Each volume carries the bookplate of Kerr with the family crest and motto Deus Solamen - God is my Comfort.

Condition. Externally the books are in good condition with marks and light shelf wear. The gilding is bright and fresh. Internally the pages are age toned and there is foxing ranging from heavy to light, the heaviest to the front and last few pages. Elsewhere it is a regular feature including to a number of plates although this is usually light. Many of the tissue guards are affected, one is missing, one loose, two creased and five torn. There is a small amount of blue ink staining to one plate.

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