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"Figures of the Most Beautiful, Useful, and Uncommon Plants"
By P.Miller
Biography of the Artist.
Philip Miller (1691 – 1771)
Born in Aberdeen in 1691, Philip was a Scottish author and botanist.
Philip Miller was made head gardener of the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1722 on Sir Hans Sloane's recommendation, and gained an international reputation for the Garden, which held the largest collection of plants in Europe under his stewardship, due to his horticultural skill and botanical abilities (e.g. his experiments in 1751, which were the first to demonstrate the importance of insects in pollination). Miller's eminence and the fame of his Gardeners Dictionary earned him fellowship of the Royal Society of London and membership of the Botanical Academy of Florence: "under his charge for almost half a century, the Chelsea Physic Garden... came to excel above all others in Europe, the number of its plants increasing fivefold in that time. Visitors from abroad apparently referred to him as 'Hortulanorum Princeps’ (ODNB)”.
Philip Miller publications:
- The Gardeners Dictionary.
- Figures of the Most Beautiful, Useful, and Uncommon Plants described in the Gardeners Dictionary (1755-1760).
Description of the work.
We are pleased to offer a selection of prints from the rare first edition of "Figures of the Most Beautiful, Useful, and Uncommon Plants described in the Gardeners Dictionary ", published in London between 1755 and 1760.
The work was first published by subscription in 50 monthly parts (each part with 6 plates) between 25 March 1755 and 30 June 1760, at a cost of 2s 6d uncoloured or 5s coloured, and, 'though the Figures of... Plants was brought out as a complement and fulfilment of The Gardeners Dictionary, it is a sufficiently complete work and may be rated on its own merits' (Hunt). The work's success may be attributed to Miller's fame, the variety of species described, and the quality of the plates. The plants illustrated were either engraved from drawings of specimens in the Garden, or drawings supplied by Miller's numerous correspondents. For the plants drawn from examples in the Garden, Miller employed Richard Lancake and two of the leading botanical artists and engravers of the period, Georg Dionysius Ehret and Johann Sebastian Mueller (or Miller). A very attractive work that includes 16 plates after Georg Dionysius Ehret, 155 after Richard Lancake, 83 by and after John Miller (aka Johann Sebastian Mueller). There are a number of unattributed plates but American plant hunters are credited with having provided three original drawings: two by William Houstoun (1695-1733) who had left Miller all his papers and drawings on his death (Mexican and Caribbean plants cf. plates 44, 182), and one by John Bartram (1699-1777) of Philadelphia, the first American-born botanist.
In the preface Miller explains that the expense of the production have caused him "...almost from the Beginning... to contract his Plan, and confine it to those Plants only, which are either curious in themselves, or may be useful in Trades, Medicine, &c, including the Figures of such new plants as have not been noticed by any former Botanists. In the execution of this work no expense has been spared to render it as perfect as possible. The drawings were taken from living plants, the engravings were most of them done under the author's inspection and the plates have been carefully coloured from the original drawings".
Each print in folio edition measure approximately 10” 5/8 by 17” 1/8 (28 by 43,5 cm).
The condition of these prints is very good, with characteristic strong plate. A large copy, with good margins on wonderful chained hand made paper. There is no foxing on clean watermarked paper.
There is no descriptive text.
Bibliography Reference: Dunthorne 209; Henrey 1097, 1099; Nissen BBI 1378; Stafleu & Cowan 6059. Great Flower Books (1990) p.121.