REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph (1759-1840) & Claude-Antoine THORY (1759-1827)
Les Roses, peintes par... Redouté...décrites et classes selon leur ordre naturel, par...Thory. Troisième edition, publiée sous la direction de M. Pirolle
Paris: Crapelet for P. Dufart and J.F. Hauer & Cie. of St. Petersburg, 1835. 3 volumes, octavo. (9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches). Half-titles. 2 lithographic portraits of Redouté and Thory by C.Motte after Mauraisse, hand-coloured engraved floral wreath by Manceau after Redouté, 183 stipple-engraved plates printed in colours and finished by hand by Chardin, Langlois, Lemaire and others after Redouté (including 3 plates illustrating the anatomy of the rose).
Contemporary French blue half morocco gilt, the flat spine in five compartments delineated by horizontal rules, titled in the second, numbered in the fourth, green silk page-markers, marbled endpapers.
A very fine set of Redouté's best known work. The "most complete edition" (Madol) to be published during his lifetime, this is a re-issue of the second octavo edition, with the addition of St. Petersburg to the imprint, and containing the 23 additional plates, the portraits and the frontispiece floral wreath, the biographical note on Thory and additional text.
Pierre-Joseph Redouté, the most successful flower painter of all time, together with Claude-Antoine Thory, an ardent botanist and collector of roses, have together in Les Roses produced a work not only of great artistic merit, but also an invaluable scientific record. "Redouté and Thory knew, described and figured almost all the important roses known in their day. Included were many of the key ancestors of our present-day roses. The plates in Les Roses have artistic value, botanical and documentary value, both for the species and cultivars still surviving and for those that have disappeared" (Gisele de la Roche). The roses used as specimens for the work were taken from the collections of Thory, the Malmaison gardens, and from other collections around Paris. Many of the flowers were novelties in Redouté's time, and a number were dedicated to the memory of his friends and acquaintances, such as l'Héritier de Brutelle and Ventenat. The success of the folio edition prompted the issue of a second (first octavo) edition in 40 parts between 1824 and 1826 with 160 plates and an expanded text. New information and new varieties led to the issue of a third edition (second octavo) edition, published in 30 parts between 1828 and 1829. The popularity of the first issue of this edition warranted the publication of the present second issue (with reset and reprinted title pages). In both issues the text was expanded yet again to contain not only more information about the culture of the rose but also by the addition of a biography of Thory by D.Beaumont, the inclusion of Thory's Traité du Rosier and the descriptive text to the 23 additional plates. In addition a floral wreath plate was added as a frontispiece to volume I and the portraits of Redouté and Thory were included for the first time. The plates are masterpieces in miniature of the engraver's art and lose none of the impact of their larger precursors in the process of reducing them from the folio to octavo format. Redouté as presiding genius is plainly discernable.
Dunthorne 233; Lawalrée 39; Madol 42; Macphail Redoutéana 22; cf. Nissen BBI 1599; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 8751; Stock Rose Books 2371.
Item #3877
Price: $35,000.00