SMITH, James Edward

A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland...

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Published by J. Sowerby, London, 1793. Quarto, with 16 finely-coloured engraved plates in the firstwork with three other plates and 24 finely-coloured engraved plates in the second work; a fine and large copy, in contemporary half calf, the spine lettered in gilt "Holland's Botany" with the word "New" added in ink in a contemporary hand above; fitted cloth case. A beautiful example of early taste in collecting; a compilation work of one of the most outstanding botanical authors in eighteenth-century England, James Edward Smith.

A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland... is the first separately-published book on Australian botany. It contains the first illustrations of a number of Australian species, including the waratah. The fine handcoloured plates were based on drawings done in New South Wales by John White, the Surgeon-General, a keen amateur natural history artist and collector, and on the 'most copious and finely preserved collection of dried specimens...' that were sent to London with the drawings.

The period of European settlement in Australia coincided with a time of fine book production in Europe; the wide public interest in natural sciences meant that the illustrated books published during the period were not only factual but often exceptionally beautiful. James Edward Smith was one of the leading naturalists in England and the author of several outstanding botanical books. In 1788 he founded, and was the first president of, the Linnean Society. James Sowerby, the artist of the superb plates here, was one of the foremost botanical artists of the time, and the collaboration between these great naturalists ensured that Australia's first illustrated flower book was among the finest of the period.

The second work bound in this volume, Gleanings of Botany..., was never completed, not even having a separate title-page (see Great Flower Books, p. 76). The twenty-four fine plates depict several exotic species from countries that include China, Japan, Arabia, Canada and the Cape of Good Hope. Burbidge's exhaustive Plant Taxonomic Literature in Australian Libraries shows that there is no copy held in an Australian library. In the preface Smith notes that 'this publication may possibly fall into the hands of several persons who are not acquainted with my "Coloured Figures of Rare Plants"; it may be necessary here to mention that the present work is intended to consist of coloured representations of such uncommon vegetables as are not already sufficiently well figured by any author...'.

The three other plates added to this copy are "Draecaena borealis", "Tussilago palmata" and "Smithia sensitiva" from Hortus Kewensis, published 1789.
Nissen, 1861; Sitwell and Blunt, 'Great Flower Books', p.76.

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• libraire: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)