Beschreibung:

ALLEN, John Fisk (1785-1865). Victoria Regia; or the Great Water Lily of America. With a brief account of its discovery and introduction into cultivation: with illustrations by William Sharp from specimens grown at Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Boston: for the author by Dutton & Wentworth, 1854.
ALLEN, John Fisk (1785-1865). Victoria Regia; or the Great Water Lily of America. With a brief account of its discovery and introduction into cultivation: with illustrations by William Sharp from specimens grown at Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Boston: for the author by Dutton & Wentworth, 1854. Broadsheet (705 x 540mm). Letterpress title, dedication to Caleb Cope, 12pp. text (numbered [5]-16), 1p. index, plate list, note and errata. 6 chromolithographic plates by Sharp & Sons of Dorchester, Mass., 5 after William Sharp one after J.F. Allen. (Some light browning to text leaves and occasional light spotting.) Contemporary half calf by F. Sissons of Worksop, contemporary red straight-grained morocco label lettered in gilt on upper cover (spine somewhat worn). Provenance : Foljambe Library, Osberton Hall. UNIQUE, UNRECORDED COPY WITH TEXT PRINTED IN GOLD of this large-scale celebration of the flowering of the amazonian water lily. This work, with plates by the first great American chromolithographer, William Sharp used four separately inked stones for each image: the results are among the finest chromolithographs ever produced in America. Great Flower Books (1990) p.69; Hofer Bequest 72; Hunt Printmaking in the Service of Botany 56; Nissen BBI 16; Stafleu & Cowan 85; Oak Spring Flora 106; Bennett, p.2; Princeton, American Graphic Arts p.147; McGrath, pp.119-20; Bettina A. Norton, 'William Sharp: Accomplished Lithographer' in Art & Commerce: American Prints of the Nineteenth Century (Charlottesville, 1978); Reese, Stamped with a National Character , 19.