Jane Wells Loudon

Jane Wells Loudon (1807-1858)
The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Bulbous Plants. London: Bradbury & Evans for William Smith, 1841. 4° (267 x 207mm). 58 hand-coloured lithographic plates, printed by Day & Haghe. (Half-title lacking, occasional browning to plates.) Contemporary calf, covers panelled in gilt and blind, spine in six compartments with raised bands, black leather lettering-piece in the second, the others with repeat decoration in gilt and blind, gilt edges (spine somewhat faded). Provenance: Captain A. Warren-Perry (armorial bookplate, occasional marginal note, one dated 1879).
FIRST EDITION. A fine copy, containing arguably the most beautiful plates of all the Loudon works. Jane Loudon published a series of five finely-produced populist works on flowers between 1840 and 1848. Jane Webb married John Loudon (botanist, farmer, gardener and horticulturalist) in 1830. She was 23 and he 47. He had sought her out after reviewing a copy of her first published novel The Mummy, a tale of the twenty-second century. They met in February 1830 and married on 14 September. By 1838 John Loudon was seriously in debt and Mrs. Loudon was prompted to write botanical works on her own account. The Ladies Flower Garden of Ornamental Annuals appeared in 1840, followed by the present work. Great Flower Books p.66; Nissen BBI 1235.