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Together 11 volumes. Folio (15 2/8 x 9 6/8 inches). Regensburg text: 4 volumes. Latin and German title-pages in all volumes but the first, printed in red and black. Mezzotint allegorical frontispiece of Flora by J.J. Haid after Baumgartner in volume one, portraits of Weinmann and Bieler by Haid after M.C. Hirschman in volumes one and III, all 3 portraits printed in blue (lacking German title-page and leaf a1 in volume one, minor adhesion of allegorical text to title-page with minor loss to plate, some minor waterstaining in volumes one and IV, some light browning). Contemporary mottled panelled calf, gilt, spines decorated in seven panels with six raised bands, morocco lettering pieces in two, the others decorated with small gilt tools (a bit marked). Atlas: 4 volumes. Vignette title-pages printed in red and black (title-page volume IV creased). 1025 fine engraved plates printed in colours and finished by hand by J.J. Haid, J.E. Ridinger, and B. Seuter (373 plates singed "S" for Seuter, and 273 signed "H" for Haid) after N. Asamin, G.D. Ehret, and others, captions in Latin and German (marginal pink stain affecting first 20 plates, a few plates a bit spotted, minor adhesion of 3 plates to opposite leaf with minor losses to plates 778,892 and 1014). Near contemporary crushed olive morocco decorated uniformly with Regensburg volumes (spines lightly faded to brown, a bit marked). Dutch text: 4 volumes. Vignette title-pages printed in red and black (last three gatherings in volume one browned. Contemporary mottled panelled calf uniformly bound with the Regensburg text volumes (upper joint of volume IV starting, a bit marked). Provenance: The Botanical Library of Michale Kuse, his sale Sotheby's New York, June 20th 2003, lot 28. A COMPLETE SET OF THE FIRST DUTCH EDITION, TEXT AND ATLAS, WITH THE FIRST EDITION OF THE GERMAN TEXT. A comprehensive and beautiful record of known 18th-century flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Financed by Weimann, director of the oldest pharmacy in Regensburg, who commissioned amongst other artists the now celebrated Georg Ehret. It was his first major commission, but he was not credited, and only received half of his promised wages, on the grounds that he had only supplied about half of the 1,000 that Weinman was expecting of him. However, even at this early stage in his career, Ehret's style is easily identified, particularly in various aloes and cacti growing in distinctive pots and urns that is a feature of Ehret's work for his own "Plantae et papiliones rariores" (1748-1759). The "Phytanthoza ." was a very important influential book. Filippo Arena borrowed heavily from it for his "La Natura, e coltura de' fiori" (1767-1768), and the dutch edition was imported to Japan where it "gave rise to a major change in illustrated botanical literature. and led to the productions from 1830 onwards of the illustrated herbal "Honzo Zufu." by Iwasaki Kanen in ninety-six volumes" (Blunt pages 155-156). Like his father before him Ehret trained as a gardener, initially working on estates of German nobility, and painting flowers only occasionally, another skill taught him by his father, who was a good draughtsman. Ehret's "first major sale of flower paintings came through Dr Christoph Joseph Trew, eminent physician and botanist of Nuremberg, who recognized his exceptional talent and became both patron and lifelong friend. Ehret sent him large batches of watercolours on the fine-quality paper Trew provided. In 1733 Trew taught Ehret the botanical importance of floral sexual organs and advised that he should show them in detail in his paintings. Many Ehret watercolours were engraved in Trew's works, such as 'Hortus Nitidissimus' (1750-86) and 'Plantae selecta'e (1750-73), in part two of which (1751) Trew named the genus Ehretia after him. "During 1734 Ehret travelled in Switzerland and France, working as a gardener and selling his paintings. While at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, he learned to use body-colour on vellum, t.
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