The Australian Flower Paintings of Ferdinand Bauer. With an Introduction by Wilfred Blunt
London, Basilisk Press, 1976.
Folio (640 × 455 mm), [88] pages with a small map, a double-page map and 25 mounted colour plates.
Dark green quarter morocco and marbled papered boards (the latter a little bowed); tiny mark to one spot on the leading edge of six consecutive leaves; an excellent copy in the cloth-covered clamshell box (a little rubbed and dusty with a few small stains).
Number 494 of 515 copies. 'This volume reproduces 25 coloured drawings of Australian plants made in 1801-5 by Ferdinand Lukas Bauer when he was official Botanical Draughtsman' on the 'Investigator' under Matthew Flinders. The plates, selected from among 236 held in the British Museum, are published here for the first time, and 'they depict gracefully and accurately the diversity of plants from Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory which were then new to science'. Each plate is accompanied by a leaf of descriptive text, with notes by Stearn, a locality map and the 'remarkably detailed Latin descriptions' by Robert Brown, the expedition's botanist; much of this material is also published here for the first time. 'Robert Brown (1773-1858) was the greatest systematic botanist and Ferdinand Lukas Bauer (1760-1826) was the greatest botanical artist ever to set foot in Australia', and Stearn's text outlines their outstanding contribution.
Item #123725
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