CURTIS, Samuel (1779-1860); and Clara Maria POPE (1767-1838)
A Monograph on the Genus Camellia, by Saml. Curtis ... the whole from Original Drawings by Clara Maria Pope
London: A. and J. Arch, 1819 [text watermarked 1818, plates 1818]. Folio. (22 1/8 x 18 1/4 inches). Engraved title-page, engraved dedication to the Duchess of Newcastle, 8pp. letterpress text, 5 hand-coloured aquatints heightened with gum arabic by Weddell after Clara Maria Pope.
Bound to style in full straight-grain green morocco, spine lettered and tooled gilt, chocolate-coloured endpapers
Curtis's rare and impressive work on Camellias: the first monograph on the subject and considered by Great Flower Books to be "the finest of all the great Camellia books" and among the most impressive and desirable of all illustrated botanical books.
Samuel Curtis, a floriculturalist, was the first cousin of William Curtis, founder of the Botanical Magazine. Along with Berlèse's later work (Iconographie du genre Camellia, 1839-1843), the Monograph is a cornerstone of any collection on the subject. It is here complete with title, dedication, explanatory text and the full complement of five breathtaking plates. The work relies heavily on the genius of Clara Maria Pope and includes her greatest published images. All the plates in the work are from her original drawings. Dunthorne writes that Pope "should be included amongst the great botanical draughtsmen," and Blunt notes that "she had a sense of the dramatic, and knew how to paint in the grand manner." Clara Maria Pope came from an artistic background: her father was the amateur artist Jared Leigh (1724-1769), her first husband was the artist Francis Wheatley (1747-1801), and her second husband the Irish actor and artist Alexander Pope (1763-1835). She started her career as a miniature painter and under the instruction of her first husband painted genre scenes in watercolour. She went on to become a highly successful painting instructor, her pupils included Princess Sophie of Gloucester and the Duchess of St. Albans. Curtis and Pope's Monograph on the Genus Camellia was issued with uncoloured plates at £3. 3s and with coloured plates at £6. 16s. 6d., but publication appears to have ceased prematurely, possibly due to the expenses incurred by Curtis. The five coloured plates depict eleven varieties of Camellia: Single White; Single Red Camellia; Sasanqua Camellia; Double White Camellia; Double Striped Camellia; Pompone or Kew Blush Camellia; Double Red Camellia; Anemome flowered or Waratah Camellia; Rose coloured or Middlemist's Camellia; and Buff or Humes Blush Camellia; Myrtle-leaved Camellia.
Dunthorne 84; Great Flower Books (1990) p.88; Nissen BBI 437; BM(NH) I, p. 406; Stafleu and Cowan TL2 1283; cf. Printmaking in the Service of Botany (Pittsburgh: 1986), 34 (plate 4 only).
Item #42425
Price: $65,000.00