Item #128818 Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants. Miniature Book, Benjamin Meggot FORSTER.
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants
Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants

Botanical Illustrations of the Twenty-Four Classes in the Linnaean System of Vegetables, by Select Specimens of English Plants

London, Printed for Darton, Harvey, and Darton, 1813.

64mo (81 × 69 mm), [iv] (last blank), 96 pages plus 48 hand-coloured wood-engraved plates.

Original red morocco a little rubbed at the extremities; sides bordered with a double fillet in blind; spine lettered and ruled in gilt; sides scored and a little marked; creases to the corners of two leaves and one plate; light offsetting from the plates; early gift inscription on the front flyleaf (April 1833); a few other trifling signs of use and age, but overall a very good copy, internally clean and bright.

'A very rare [miniature] children's book on botany with very attractive and delicately coloured flower plates, including a few mosses and mushrooms' (Spielmann: 'Catalogue of the Library of Miniature Books collected by Percy Edwin Spielmann', page 23). Darton attributes authorship to Benjamin Meggott Forster, based on an advertisement in another Darton publication (Darton: 'The Dartons. An Annotated Check-list of Children's Books issued by Two Publishing Houses, 1787-1876', page 102). His biographical note on Forster is worth quoting: 'Benjamin Meggott Forster, an eminent amateur scientist, played a prominent part in various humanitarian causes, such as opposition to slavery and the suppression of chimney-sweeping by children. He also drafted the Act of 1814 whereby for the first time in England it became a criminal offence to steal a child; hitherto those stealing children could be convicted only if it could be proved they also stole their clothes'.

Spielmann 65; Darton G355.

Item #128818

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