French language. This book would have accompanied a second volume of text.
Hardcover. Brown card boards with leather spine embossed with gold.
A collection of engraved plates that includes:
A frontispiece.
3 portraits of persons associated with the garden.
A fold out plan.
10 images showing features of the garden such as the cabin for peacocks and storks, the bear pit, the greenhouse, the cafe and the amphitheatre.*
42 black and white images of animals birds and reptiles with only one image on the page.
57 black and white engravings of animals, birds and reptiles with two images on each page.
19 images of indigeous people from different parts of the world.
12 hand coloured plates showing plants and birds.
2 pages of index(script).
Le Jardin Des Plantes, Paris was established in 1626. It was originally a medical herb garden but by 1739 had expanded its collection such that it contained 7,000 plants, a maze and a menagerie.
Condition. Very Good. The boards are quite worn. The front hinge in particular is weak. The corners and the top and base of the spine are bumped. The fold out plate of the garden has been poorly folded and so is more creased than it ought to be and slightly browned at the crease. The other plates but for some occasional marks and spots of foxing that affect the first section of plates in particular*, are in the main clean and unthumbed. The coloured plates are printed on heavier paper than the rest, and the end papers, at both the beginning and end of the book, are again of a different quality again. I don’t think this is evidence of the whole having been rebound however.
