Books and Manuscripts

Barton, William P.C.
A Flora of North America… 
Philadelphia: M. Carey & Sons/H.C. Carey & I. Lea, 1821-1823. In three volumes. First edition. 4to. With half-titles in Vols. II and III; with the "To Subscribers" leaf in Vol. II (bound between pp. 42-43; often lacking). Illustrated with 106 hand-colored engraved plates (two folding), including some partially-printed in colors and finished by hand, by Cornelius Tiebout, G.B. Ellis, F. Kearny, J. Boyd, and others, after drawings by the author. Three-quarter polished tan calf over drab paper-covered boards, stamped in gilt, joints rubbed, corners worn; all edges trimmed; light to heavy soiling and foxing to text and plates; offsetting from plates on to text; dampstaining in bottom corner of some leaves in first volume and bottom edge of second volume; plate 46 in second volume bound upside down. BM(NH) I, p.105; Bennett p. 9 (incorrect plate count); Dunthorne 26; Nissen BBI 84; MacPhail Benjamin Smith Barton and William Crillon Barton 19; Meisel III, p. 385; Pritzel 446; Reese, Stamped with a National Character 11; Sabin 3858; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 236

An important work on American flora, "magnificently illustrated" (DAB) with "plates [that] are clear, soft and lovely" (Bennett). The work includes the first successful use of stipple-engraving in the United States. In addition to its significance as a botanical work, Barton's Flora... is also one of the most important early color plate books entirely produced in the United States. The text gives details of each species, its Latin binomial, common name, and class and order according to the Linnaean system, followed by interesting information about the history of the discovery of the species and details about its geographical range. The present set is particularly desirable as it includes the rare "To Subscribers" leaf occasionally found in the second volume, it is here bound between pp. 42 and 43. Like many other works of its day, Barton's book was originally issued in parts, with the first parts appearing in 1820 and the final ones in 1824. "The plates were made by [among others] Cornelius Tiebout, the first really skilled engraver born in the United States…" (Reese).