6 results found
	HILL, John (1716?-1775) The British Herbal: an history of plants and trees, natives of Britain, cultivated for use, or, raised for beauty London: T. Osborne, J. Shipton, J. Hodges, J. Newbery, B. Collins, S. Crowder and H. Woodgate, 1756 [-1757-1758]. Royal folio (18 1/8 x 11 inches). Letterepress title printed in red and black with engraved hand-coloured vignette by C. Grignion after S. Wale, hand-coloured engraved coat-of-arms of the Duke of Northumberland heading the dedication. Hand-coloured engraved frontispiece by H. Roberts after Wale, 75 engraved plates (71 hand-coloured plates, printed in brown and coloured by hand; 4 plates [nos. 29, 61, 68 & 74] uncoloured and supplied from a smaller copy), by R. Benning, Boyce, Roberts and Smith and others after J. Burgess. (Text pp.195-200, 427-430 and 473-6 also supplied from a smaller copy). Contemporary sprinkled calf gilt, covers with decorative border of a dog-tooth roll, a fillet, and two decorative rolls, the inner incorporating various insects, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, brown morocco label in the second, the others with repeat decoration in gilt made up from various small tools, comb-marbled endpapers, red-stained edges. Provenance: W. Wymondesold (early signature on front blank). Large paper copy with plates printed in brown and hand-coloured at a contemporary date: the whole illustrates approximately 1500 plants. This deluxe issue of The British Herbal was originally issued in weekly numbers "on Royal paper, with the cuts coloured" and published at 3s. 6d. per part according to advertisements in The Public Advertiser of 1756-7. "The genera and species are clearly described in The British herbal, and the work is of importance as being one of the first publications to appear after [Linnaeus'] Species plantarum of 1753, the year internationally accepted as the starting-point for modern botanical nomenclature. A number of generic names used by pre-Linnaean authors, but suppressed by Linnaeus, retain here their first pre-Linnean significance, and were thus restored to botanical nomenclature... The British herbal is also of interest for Hill's criticism of Linnaeus. Although Hill admired and often praised the latter, he did not hesitate to express his opinions when they differed from those of Linnaeus. Many examples of Hill's censures are to be found in The British herbal, and Druce has pointed out that in this work Hill 'criticizes Linnaeus quite fairly and strongly but not with acridity, and shows again and again where that illustrious botanist went wrong'" (Henrey). Henrey writes of Sir John Hill that "Not only was...[he] industrious and energetic, but his writings show him to have been a man of real ability and genius" (vol. II, p. 91). Unfortunately, he was also conceited, eccentric and fond of self-advertisement: traits not conducive to winning friends, and various false starts in his search for wealth and recognition led him to pursue a number of careers: apothecary, practical botanist, actor, gardener (he apparently assisted in the laying out of a botanic garden in Kew, and was gardener at Kensington Palace) and, most productively of all, miscellaneous writer (the list of his works in the Dictionary of National Biography runs to five and a half columns). Copies of this deluxe issue are quite scarce. It is unclear why four plates and seven text leaves are missing from this copy, but seem never to have been bound in; an early owner has supplied them from the regular edition. Blunt and Stearn The Art of Botanical Illustration, pp. 170-171; Bradley III.81; Dunthorne 128; Great Flower Books (1990) p. 100; Henrey II, pp. 92-94 and III, no. 799; Hunt 557; Nissen BBI 881; Pritzel 4063; Stafleu & Cowan 2769. #25029$7,500.00
	HILL, John (1770-1850) after William Guy WALL (1792-after 1864) New York From The Heights Near Brooklyn New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1828. Aquatint and engraving, with hand-colouring by John Hill (1770-1850). Sheet size: 19 3/4 x 26 7/8 inches. The Wall view of Manhattan from Brooklyn. The view was made from a point in Brooklyn near the Anchor Gin Distillery of Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont (later Pierpont). The pond in the foreground was Cornell's mill pond. This view, together with the companion New York from Weehawk, forms "one of the most beautiful pairs of views of New York in the early nineteenth century" (Stokes, American Historical Prints, op.cit.). A contemporary newspaper article noted that the "views taken by Mr. Wall are the most accurate descriptions that we have seen. One of them is taken from Brooklyn Heights, near the Distillery of the Messrs. Pierponts, and the other from the Mountain at Weehawk. Mr. Wall at first made a drawing from the high land back of Hoboken…" The original watercolor is preserved in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This is a beautifully coloured impression from the third state. Stauffer 615; Stokes, American Historical Prints, c.1820-23-E-92; Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, vol. III, pp.557-579, illustrated plate 92; Koke, Checklist of John Hill, number 96; Déak, Picturing America, number 335, illustrated #4089$12,500.00
	HILL, John (1770-1850) after William Guy WALL (1792-after 1864) New York From Weehawk New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1828. Aquatint and engraving, with hand-colouring by John Hill. Sheet size: 19 5/8 x 26 3/8 inches. The Wall view of Manhattan from Weehawken The steeple at the right end of Manhattan Island is Trinity Church; that at the extreme left of the view is St. John's Chapel. Connected to the tip of the island by a bridge is Castle Clinton (now Castle Garden). Governor's Island, with Castle Fort William, lies just off Manhattan. In the right middle distance, forming part of the Jersey shoreline, is Steven's Point. In the distance, the Narrows dividing Brooklyn and Staten Island. This view, together with the companion New York from the Heights near Brooklyn, forms "one of the most beautiful pairs of views of New York in the early nineteenth century" (Stokes, American Historical Prints, op.cit.). A contemporary newspaper article noted that the "views taken by Mr. Wall are the most accurate descriptions that we have seen. One of them is taken from Brooklyn Heights, near the Distillery of the Messrs. Pierponts, and the other from the Mountain at Weehawk. Mr. Wall at first made a drawing from the high land back of Hoboken; but the view from Weehawk is far preferable, as it not only affords a commanding prospect of the city but also of the whole of our beautiful harbor, with all the islands, &c." The original watercolor is preserved in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This is a beautifully coloured impression from the third state. Stauffer 616; Stokes, American Historical Prints, c.1820-23-E-98; Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, vol. III, pp.557-579, illustrated plate 92; Koke, Checklist of John Hill, number 95; Déak, Picturing America, number 336, illustrated. #4087$12,500.00
	HILL, John (1770-1850, engraver) & William Guy Wall (1792-1864) View Near Fort Montgomery. No. 18 of the Hudson River Port Folio New York: Henry J. Megarey, [1822]. Aquatint, colored by hand, by John Hill, after W.G. Wall. The plate number "18" has been written in ink in the title. A few minor abrasions in the title and mild soiling. Sheet size: 18 1/8 x 24 inches. Superb example of one of the greatest and earliest works devoted to the American landscape Wall and Hill demonstrate in this view their great talent for investing apparently simple and random scenes with grandeur and intrigue. The focal point of the image is an unadorned raft with a number of men shown from so far away that there no distinguishing individual characteristics: they are mere figures floating down the calm, mirror-like river. The hills that slope down into the river are reflected to such a degree that it's hard to discern exactly where the hills stops and the reflection begins. The succession of hills and the river recede into the distance beneath a gray sky, also reflected in the river. The hills, river and sky seem to have a quiet liveliness of quite a different order than that of the active little figures on the raft. "The Hudson River Portfolio, a series of twenty views...celebrates the beauty of the Hudson and its surroundings. It is amongst the finest collections of New York State views ever published...The aquatints show us the region of the Hudson's headwaters, the rapids it creates on its journey downstream, the bridges it makes imperative overhead, the trade that its navigability spawns, and, most of all, the ennobling topographic settings through which it passes. In the final view, New York from Governor's Island, we see the Hudson at the end of its journey, where it joins the East River in New York Bay...William Guy Wall...was a native of Dublin who came to America in 1818...Beginning in 1826, he exhibited frequently at the National Academy of Design...[He was skillful with atmospheric perspective in his landsacpes, and he created almost spiritual effects with light, at a time when viewers were used to literal depictions. Between 1828 and 1835 he remained in America, but then returned to Dublin for twenty years. He came back to America for four years between 1856 and 1860, before again returning in Ireland where he lived for the remaining four years of his life] Wall frequently worked in tandem with John Hill, whose emigration from England predated that of Wall by two years...According to Koke, 'the artistic achievement for which Hill is best known...was the Hudson River Portfolio, a landscape series closely akin to the Picturesque Views of American Scenery recently finished for the Careys' (John Hill Master of Aquatint, p.86)...Hill, an aquatintist virtually without peer in America, was called in to fill the place vacated by John Rubens Smith, who dissociated himself from the Portfolio before he finished engraving the four plates of the first number...Hill belonged to a small group of English-trained engravers who raised the level of American print-making to an extraordinary degree" (Deak, pp. 217-218). Second state of 3 (with number `18' added in manuscript to title) Koke, A Checklist #82; Deak, Picturing America #320 #17018$8,000.00
	HILL, Sir John (1716?-1775) Eden: or, a Compleat body of Gardening, Both in Knowledge and Practice; Directing the Gardener in his Work, for every distinct Week in the Year... Illustrated with figures of about Four Hundred of the finest Shrubs, Flowers and Plants... Enlarged With the Addition of Twenty Folio Plates of new Plants, now first raised in the Royal Garden at Kew London: printed for the Author, sold by all booksellers, 1773. Folio. Mezzotint portrait of the author by Richard Houstan after Francis Cotes, engraved frontispiece, 80 engraved plates, (12 by and after J. Hill, 1 by Hill after Jan van Huysum, 8 by C.A. Edwards, Boyce, B. Cole or others, 59 unsigned). 55 plates with fine partial or full hand-colouring by a later early-19th-century hand, 63 of the plates with some or all of the plant names neatly altered in ink to their Linnaean equivalents in a single early-19th-century hand. Expertly bound to style in half 18th-century russia gilt over marbled paper-covered boards, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, red morocco lettering-piece in the second, the others with repeat overall decorative tooling. Provenance: Hon. Booth Grey (Caverswall Castle, Staffordshire, England, armorial bookplate). Rare second expanded edition. With twenty more botanical plates and a very fine mezzotint portrait showing 'the intelligent and determined head' (Oak Spring Flora) of Sir John Hill, 'who undeniably played a conspicuous role in the intellectual history of eighteenth-century England' (op. cit.) This work was originally issued in 60 weekly parts between August 1756 and October 1757. The present second expanded edition is made up from the text sheets and plates of the first edition, with the addition of a mezzotint portrait of the author and an 'Appendix to Eden' consisting of 20 additional botanical plates, each figuring a single species and 4pp. of explanatory text. These additional plates originally appeared in vols. XII, XIII and XVII of Hill's The Vegetable System (1759-1786), and although unsigned are by Hill himself. The partial hand-colouring is carefully executed with great attention paid to the correct colouration of the flowers - it appears to have been carried out at the same time as the Linnaean names were added to many of the plates: the Hon. Booth Grey or his family must be considered as likely authors/artists. The work, originally intended as a companion to the Compleat Body of Husbandry (London, 1756), was designed along very unusual lines for the period: each weekly part includes information on what should be done in the garden during the following week together with descriptions of the plants that should be at their peak at that time. In the introduction the author's intentions are made plain: "We shall treat Gardens from their Origin, Design, and first Construction, to the raising them to Perfection, and keeping them in that condition; and we shall consider, in our Course, their Products, whether of Use, Curiosity, or Beauty. These we shall describe in their several Seasons, suiting our Publications to the Time of their Appearance." Henrey writes of Sir John Hill that "Not only was...[he] industrious and energetic, but his writings show him to have been a man of real ability and genius" (vol. II, p. 91). Unfortunately, he was also conceited, eccentric and fond of self-advertisement: traits not conducive to winning friends, and various false starts in his search for wealth and recognition led him to pursue a number of careers: apothecary, practical botanist, actor, gardener (he apparently assisted in the laying out of a botanic garden in Kew, and was gardener at Kensington Palace) and, most productively of all, miscellaneous writer (the list of his works in the D.N.B. runs to five and a half columns). Cf. Dunthorne 129; Great Flower Books (1990) p.100; Henrey III. 805; cf. Hunt II, 559; cf. Johnston Cleveland Collections 442; cf. Nissen BBI 880; Oak Spring Flora 53; cf. Stafleu & Cowan TL2 2770 #15087$12,500.00
	HILL, Sir John (1716?-1775) The Vegetable System. Or, the internal structure and the life of plants; their parts, and nourishment, explained; their classes, orders, genera, and species, ascertained, and described; in a method altogether new: comprehending an artificial index, and a natural system. With figures of all the plants ... The whole from nature only London: printed at the expence of the author (for the author), , 1759-75. Vls.1-9 and 11-26 only (lacking vol.10), folio (19 x 12 inches). 1487 engraved plates only (of 1491, lacking plate 31 in vol.VIII; 22 & 27 in vol. XIII; and 58 in vol. XXII). Near-uniform contemporary half calf, covers with 'WA' monogram on covers. The most ambitious and extensive botanical publication of the eighteenth century: Sir John Hill's masterpiece - this is an excellent copy apart from the obvious void created by the missing volume. Linnaeus, whilst dismissing what he read as "a work without botanical science," was ecstatic about what he saw: "I fainted at the sight of Hill's great work ... with the most beautiful plates of plants on each alternate page." His comment about the spectacular look of the Vegetable System still strikes a chord today but his dismissal of the ethos behind it is, with hindsight, unfair. Essentially, Hill disagreed with what he perceived as the "artificiality" of Linnaeus's system and had suggested a more natural alternative. A more recent assessment is given by Stafleu: "The Vegetable System is of great importance because it gave for the first time in the vernacular a comprehensive treatment of the plant kingdom, on a lavish scale and with illustrations, adopting the Linnaean generic names and introducing binary nomenclature. The first volume is still in the old [i.e. pre-Linnaean] style, but from the second volume onward ... Linnaean binomials are used, although the sexual system is not followed." It seems that Hill's original intentions for this work were much more modest than the present volumes would suggest. It was at the behest of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, that Hill was persuaded to take on the task of extending the work. Initially the work proceeded with the enthusiastic support of Hill's extremely rich and influential patron: the costs were at first borne by Bute and he apparently contributed extensively to the text. Hill had begun working with Bute when the latter took on the task of laying out Kew Gardens in 1760 and their working relationship was initially cordial. However, their relationship was strained to a breaking point by the demands of the present work and by the time the final volume appeared Bute refused to maintain his financial support leaving Hill near to bankruptcy. He died shortly afterwards, leaving this work as a bitter-sweet memorial. Hill's widow gives her version of the whole affair in her 'Address to the Public,' 1788, and see Henrey II, pp. 103-108. The work appears to have been issued and re-issued in response to demand, and sets vary considerably. This set agrees with the collation given by Nissen, with the following exceptions: add the following bis plates Vol II, 36, 87, vol.VIII, 15, vol. XII, 35 & vol.XXII, 5; pl.53 in vol. VIII is not called for; pls 23/24 in vol. XIII & 223/23 in Vol. XXII are on one leaf. In addition Nissen calls for 51 plates in Vol. VIII (60 here); 60 plates in vol.XIII (61 here) and 61 plates in vol. XVIII (60 here); 60 plates in vol.XIII (61 here) and 61 plates in vol. XVIII (60 here). The Plesch copy conforms to most of these amendments. The missing vol.10 has 59 plates. Great Flower Books (1990), p. 100; Henrey II, pp. 103-108 and III, no. 832; Nissen BBI 886; Pritzel 4070; Stafleu Linnaeus p. 210; Stafleu & Cowan 2772. #22006$37,500.00
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