Description
Webb & Bower, Published 1983. Hardcover, 64 pp.; 29 cm; illustrated with 32 full-page color plates of botanical paintings. First edition.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
Turn the pages with the arrows, keyboard, or a swipe.
Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Yellow boards with brown lettering on front and spine. Mild edge wear to covers. Binding tight. Interior pages are clean and bright throughout. Dust jacket is cream-colored with botanical illustrations on the front and back; light overall shelf wear; price clipped. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. [From front jacket flap] The flower paintings that were commissioned by the first Duchess of Beaufort in the early eighteenth century have been kept carefully by the Beaufort family at Badminton House ever since. These beautiful and vividly detailed paintings, now reproduced for the first time, retain their vivid colouring even after nearly three hundred years. Mary Somerset, the first Duchess, had a family who loved flowers before her, loved flowers and took a great interest in gardens and rare plants. She and her gardeners carefully nurtured flowers and plants that came to her from countries as far away as the East Indies, the Caribbean and the Cape of Good Hope. She wanted a record of the flowers she kept in her gardens at Badminton and in Chelsea, so she commissioned these paintings. The Dowager Duchess brought the well-known Dutch flower artist, Everhardus Kychicus, to Badminton, and a new talent for drawing and painting, Daniel Frankcom, an under-foreman employed by the family. Thirty-two paintings have been carefully selected from the two volumes which testify to the Duchess's dedication. Contents: Foreword by Henry Somerset, 10th Duke of Beaufort; Introduction by Gloria Cottesloe; Descriptions of the Plates by Doris Hunt; Notes on the paintings; List of Illustrations; Bibliography.