Very rare first edition of this lavishly printed study of ornamental plants and shrubs, charmingly based on the plants, mostly half-hardy, apparently grown by the author in his own garden. The work is beautifully illustrated with 20 full-page engraved plates by Johann Rudolf Schellenberg (1740-1806), painstakingly and vividly coloured by hand, at the rear of the volume. It is rare: we have found just four copies in North America, and two complete copies in the UK, at the BL and Kew.
The introduction explains that the work is intended for amateurs - mainly, Clairville writes, 'beaucoup de Dames' - who are interested in cultivating plants as their means and taste allow, but have thus far been limited to the same range of mediocre plants, rendered obscure by their inaccessible, Linnaean Latin names. In order to make the work even more accessible than standard botanical catalogues, the introduction goes on to say, the descriptions of plants are accompanied by plates, to be issued in groups of five every three months, along with their respective 'cahiers'. Thus the twenty botanical descriptions that make up the work, divided into four 'cahiers', or sections, are illustrated with their respective plate. Given the manner in which it was issued, it is remarkable to find both the complete text and the full suite of plates.
De Clairville and Schellenberg, both entomologists as well as - especially in De Clairville's case - botanists, also collaborated on an illustrated study of insects in Switzerland, published shortly after the present work, in 1798.
Pencilled, nineteenth-century ownership inscription of Charlotte Mills to title page.
Nissen 359; Stafleu 1133 (calls for 21 plates, but this is based on the Hunt copy, which has an "extra plate, entitled in brown ink Celfia crocea traced, hand coloured" clearly added, and probably a drawing). Hunt 720.
OCLC: North America: Winterthur Museum, Hunt Institute (with extra plate), Harvard (2 copies, at Houghton & Arnold Arboretum). UK: BL, Kew, Natural History Museum (incomplete, with only 5 of 20 plates).
