MEYER, Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer (1782-1856). Flora des Königreichs Hannover. Gottingen and Hamburg: 1842-54.
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MEYER, Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer (1782-1856). Flora des Königreichs Hannover. Gottingen and Hamburg: 1842-54.

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MEYER, Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer (1782-1856). Flora des Königreichs Hannover. Gottingen and Hamburg: 1842-54.

3 volumes, 2° (520 x 355mm). The plates in two parts, bound in after the 4th and 6th parts of volume 3, each with letterpress titles, engraved additional title with colour-printed and hand-coloured engraved vignette and 30 fine colour-printed and hand-coloured engraved plates by Andorff, F.Fleischmann, Grape, C.Guinand, F.W.Meyer, C.Meyer, H.Meyer, C.Schmelz and Schumann after the author, F.W.Meyer, Eberlein, Saxesen, Schumann, Sontag and M.Tettelbach. (Some minor spotting to a few plates). Volume 3 bound in 2 volumes in contemporary green cloth, covers with floral gilt centrepieces and gilt ruled borders, spines neatly rebacked to style, volumes 1 and 2 bound in one volume to style in modern green morocco. Provenance: Manuscript note by the author bound in before volume one.

A FINE COPY OF THIS RARE WORK ON HANNOVERIAN FLORA with an interesting explanation note from the author. The plants depicted are quite domestic: fox-glove, buttercups, grasses, dog-rose and other wild flowers to be found in Hannover, but the artists and engravers employed on this work have transformed the familiar into a work of art. The purple fox-glove in particular is a marvel of natural-history art: all the botanical details are correctly displayed, but certain touches (the bloom on the leaves, the luminosity of the inside of the flowers) raise the image up and away from a mere botanical record and into the realms of botanical art comparable to some of the best work of the French artists of the early 19th century.A complicated work published over a long period, this copy conforms with Stafleu and Cowan's collation. The plates are bound in two sections rather than as a separate plate volume. The note bound in to volume one signed 'the author' is particularly illuminating. Meyer explains that he was constantly interrupted as he wrote the work between 1826-36 and that lack of finances delayed its publication and equally prevented a larger number of plates to be produced to illustrate his text. Stafleu and Cowan 5935. (3)
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