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Augsburg, 1810
The plant kingdom in hand colour, for readers who could not afford a real herbal
Unterhaltungen aus der Naturgeschichte. Des Pflanzenreichs erster Theil. Augsburg, in der Martin Engelbrechtschen Kunsthandlung. 1810.
Unterhaltungen aus der Naturgeschichte ran to twenty five parts, nineteen in Wilhelm\'s lifetime and the rest after his death in 1811, carrying some 1,469 copper plates cut by Augsburg engravers. This part is the general introduction to the plant kingdom, complete in itself at 573 pages, ending at Ende des ersten Theils.
The text works through botany from the ground up: what the science is for, how a herbarium is made and dried, then roots, stems, leaves and their surfaces, the arrangement of leaves, the forms of the flower, and at the end the magnified parts of fructification. Every technical term carries its Latin equivalent, so the book reads as a picture dictionary of plant anatomy.
The plates are engraved and coloured by hand, each carrying its own numbered figures keyed to the text. We have counted them: 57 present, numbered I to LVI without a break and then LVIII. Plate LVII is lacking, and the figure numbering settles the point, since LVI ends at figure 468 and LVIII begins at 472, so figures 469 to 471 are wanting with it. The colour is fresh and unfaded, strongest on the flower plates.
In the original marbled paper boards, blue with red and brown veining, the spine in the same paper, the edges sprinkled red. Small octavo, about 7 x 4 x 1.5 inches. An ink signature on the front free endpaper appears to read Hallmann, with a further name in pencil below that we cannot make out.
Good in the original boards, an honest unrestored copy. The text is complete and the hand colouring is bright. One plate, LVII, is lacking, as described above; the other 57 are present. The boards are rubbed with the paper worn through at the corners and along the joints, and the spine paper is chipped at head and tail. The paper is lightly toned with foxing, heavier on the endpapers and last few leaves.
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