1909 BEAUTIFUL GARDENS Walter P Wright Art Nouveau Binding Color Plates For Sale

WALTER P. WRIGHT — BEAUTIFUL GARDENS, 1909First Edition Thus | Brilliant Art Nouveau-Style Pictorial Cloth | Six Color Plates | Two Folding Garden Plans

WRIGHT, Walter P. Beautiful Gardens: How to Make and Maintain Them. Modern Artistic Flower Gardening, with Plans, Designs, and Photographic Illustrations and Coloured Plates.

London: Cassell and Company, 1909.

Enlarged Edition. First Edition Thus.

Large octavo. xii, 307 pages.

Illustrated with six color plates, including the frontispiece, numerous photographic and other illustrations, and two folding garden plans.

A particularly beautiful copy of Walter P. Wright’s great Edwardian gardening book, preserved in its spectacular original multicolor pictorial publisher’s binding.

The book is attractive in itself, but the binding is extraordinary.

Rich red cloth is elaborately decorated in gilt and color with a large stylized garden composition extending across the front board and spine. Urns, trees, flowering borders, tall plants, geometric framing, and brilliant touches of green, blue, pink, cream, and yellow combine in one of the most striking decorative gardening bindings of the Edwardian period.

The front board remains remarkably vivid and highly displayable.

The 1909 Enlarged Edition

This is the important 1909 Enlarged Edition, the first edition in this expanded form.

The enlarged edition transformed Wright’s practical gardening manual into a substantial illustrated survey of garden design and cultivation.

It contains:

• Six color plates
• Two folding garden plans
• Numerous photographic plates and illustrations
• Garden designs and practical diagrams
• Detailed instruction on the creation and maintenance of the Edwardian garden

The work treats the garden not merely as a collection of plants but as a carefully composed visual environment.

Subjects include:

• the ideal home garden;
• laying out gardens;
• the making and maintenance of lawns;
• herbaceous borders;
• flower beds;
• trees and shrubs;
• pergolas;
• rock gardens;
• wall gardens;
• planting and maintenance;
• the selection and cultivation of flowers.

The result is both a practical horticultural handbook and an illustrated record of Edwardian garden taste.

A Spectacular Original Pictorial Binding

The volume remains in its original publisher’s deep red cloth.

The upper cover is organized within an elaborate framework of multiple gilt rules.

At its center is a large multicolor garden composition depicting:

• a tall stylized tree;
• architectural garden urns;
• flowering borders;
• blue and green ground planting;
• vertical stems and foliage;
• delicate botanical forms.

The pictorial panel is printed and stamped in:

• gold;
• green;
• blue;
• pink;
• cream;
• yellow.

The composition has a distinctly Art Nouveau-style character, combining sinuous plant forms and flattened decorative color with a formal architectural framework.

The spine is equally impressive.

Large gilt lettering is set above a tall pictorial garden vignette with another stylized tree and flowering border, creating a rare decorative continuity between spine and front cover.

The binding itself gives the volume exceptional appeal as an object of Edwardian book design.

Walter P. Wright

Walter Page Wright (1864–1940) was one of the most prolific British popular horticultural writers of the early twentieth century.

He served as Horticultural Superintendent under the Kent County Council and produced an extensive body of practical works on:

• roses;
• bulbs;
• fruit;
• flowers;
• garden trees and shrubs;
• greenhouse cultivation;
• rock gardens;
• general garden design.

His books helped make professional horticultural knowledge accessible to the rapidly expanding audience of Edwardian amateur gardeners.

Beautiful Gardens is particularly attractive because it combines Wright’s practical expertise with the visual ambitions of the period’s illustrated gardening books.

Six Color Plates

The book is illustrated with six color plates, including the frontispiece.

These provide a rich visual complement to the numerous photographic illustrations and practical garden designs.

All six color plates are present and well preserved.

Two Folding Garden Plans

Of particular interest are the two folding garden plans, both important features of the enlarged edition.

Both folding plans are present, complete, and intact.

Folded plans are especially vulnerable to loss and damage in working gardening books, making their survival an important element of completeness.

Bibliographic Details

Author: Walter Page Wright
Title: Beautiful Gardens: How to Make and Maintain Them
Full Subtitle: Modern Artistic Flower Gardening, with Plans, Designs, and Photographic Illustrations and Coloured Plates
Publisher: Cassell and Company
Place: London
Date: 1909
Edition: Enlarged Edition; First Edition Thus
Pagination: xii, 307 pages
Format: Large octavo
Color Plates: Six, including frontispiece
Folding Plans: Two
Binding: Original multicolor pictorial publisher’s cloth
Top Edge: Gilt
Language: English

Condition

Very Good. A bright and unusually attractive example.

Original red pictorial cloth remains exceptionally colorful and highly displayable.

The elaborate gilt and multicolor decoration to the front board remains vivid, with excellent retention of the green, blue, pink, cream, yellow, and gold details.

The spine remains attractive and clearly legible, retaining much of its pictorial decoration.

There is light wear and rubbing consistent with age, including some softening and minor fraying at the head and foot of the spine and light wear at the corners and extremities.

Interior generally clean and well preserved, with age toning and scattered foxing.

Color plates remain attractive.

Both folding garden plans are present and intact.

Binding sound.

Please examine all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description and best convey the unusually decorative character of this copy.

Collector’s Note

An unusually beautiful example of Edwardian pictorial book design.

The appeal of this copy lies in the remarkable combination of:

• original multicolor Art Nouveau-style pictorial cloth;
• brilliant gilt decoration;
• six color plates;
• two folding garden plans;
• numerous period photographs and illustrations;
• substantial Edwardian garden-design content;
• a major British popular horticultural writer.

Of particular interest to collectors of:

• decorative publisher’s bindings;
• Art Nouveau book design;
• gardening and horticulture;
• garden history;
• landscape design;
• Edwardian decorative arts;
• color-plate books.

A remarkably displayable garden book in a binding that perfectly embodies its subject: an idealized Edwardian garden transformed into gilt and color.