Lot No. 15: HOOKER, JOSEPH DALTON

HOOKER, JOSEPH DALTON

ILLUSTRATIONS OF HIMALAYAN PLANTS

First and only Edition

Year: 1855

Size: 51 x 38.5 cm (20 x 15.1 Inches)

No. of illustrations: 24 hand-colored lithographs

Published by: Reeve 1855. Folio size (51.5 x 39 cm). Lithographed title with hand-colored botanical border, 24 hand-colored lithographed plates by and after W. H. Fitch from original drawings by native artists, all with original tissue guards.

BINDING: A contemporary green half calf leather over moire green cloth, title in gilt tooled label on upper cover and spine.

Fine neat copy of the highly scare work.

The beautiful plates are amongst the best examples of the work of Walter Hood Fitch (1817-1892).

FIRST AND ONLY EDITION OF HOOKER'S OPUS MAJOR WITH SOME OF THE FINEST PLATES OF HIMALAYAN PLANTS illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch, the greatest and most famous botanical artist of nineteenth century. The superbly illustrated title shows thirty different species of Himalayan plants.

James Cathcart (1802-1851) produced a series of nearly one thousand drawings of plants from the Himalayas, from which Hooker made this selection based both on aesthetic and scientific interest. "Contains probably the finest plates of Magnolia Campbellii and Meconopsis simplicifolia ever made as well as other important Himalayan plants." - Patrick M.Synge, Great Flower Books 1700-1900.

The book was to be published with the financial support of Cathcart (with whom Hooker had stayed in Bengal) and to be distributed free to 'the principal botanists and scientific establishments in Europe'. However, Carthcart died 49 years old, on his way back to London, at Lausanne. The book was then financed by the family as well as by others.The book had 176 subscribers amongst which Charles Darwin to whom Hooker had dedicated his 'Himalayan Journals' (1854). The original drawings for the present work were done by native artists and were redrawn by Fitch to correct 'the stiffness and want of botanical knowledge displayed by the native artists who executed most of the originals' (from the Introduction). "For the title page of the book, Fitch created a design of thirty different species of Himalyan flora. Other pages, vibrant with colour, illustrate such plants as the purple 'Magnolia campbellii', or the 'Querrcus lamellosa'.

The Victorians loved superlatives, and they loved this book. Not only did it contain Fitch's best work, but it was also one of the finest flower books ever produced. It created a sensation in 1855 when it sold for 5 guineas." (J. Lewis, Walter Hood Fitch, a celebration.

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, son of the famous botanist Sir William Jackson Hooker, grew an early interest in plant distribution and the voyages of explorers like Captain James Cook. He joined renowned polar explorer Captain Ross's Antarctic expedition to the South Magnetic Pole. Hooker identifies and collected many new zoological and geological specimens on this expedition. In 1847 Hooker left England for his three year long Himalayan expedition; he would be the first European to collect plants in the Himalaya. In 1848 Joseph arrived and based his expedition in Darjeeling. Hooker wrote to Darwin relaying to him the habits of animals in India, and collected plants in Bengal. Hooker got permission to visit Sikkim in 1849. He explored and travelled along the Great Runjeet river to its junction with the Tista River and Tonglu mountain in the Singalila range on the border with Nepal. Hooker travelled to Zongri, west over the spurs of Kangchenjunga, and north west along Nepal's passes into Tibet. In April 1849 he planned a longer expedition into Sikkim. He travelled north west up the Lachen Valley to the Kongra Lama Pass and then to the Lachoong Pass. On his return to Darjeeling he wrote his journals. He made his last Himalayan expedition to Sylhet and the Khasi Hills in Assam. Hooker's survey of hitherto unexplored regions, the Himalayan Journals, dedicated to Charles Darwin, was published by the Calcutta Trigonometrically Survey Office and Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co., 1891. He started the series Flora Indica in 1855, together with Thomas Thompson. Their botanical observations and the publication of the Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya (1849–51), Illustrations of Himalayan plants (1855) formed the basis of elaborate works on the rhododendrons of the Sikkim Himalaya and on the flora of India. Walter Hood Fitch illustrated his works with lithographs.

Fitch had attracted the attention of Sir William Hooker (1785-1865) when he was working as an apprentice to a Glasgow firm of calico designers. `When Hooker was appointed Director of Kew Gardens, he carried his protégé south with him. That was in 1841: for the next fifty years Fitch remained at Kew, and his career is inseparably associated with those of Sir William and his son Joseph.' (Great Flower Books 1990, p.46). 'Fitch had the greatest competence of any botanical painter who has yet appeared in drawing the rhododendron' (Great Flower Books). 'In his lithographs he has captured the exuberant form and Color of these flowering shrubs. Sometimes at the base of the plate, magnified views of the pistils, stamens and sections of the ovaries are presented. The first plate is unusually attractive because the plant is shown in its native habitat, growing among the trunks of fallen trees against a hazy background of Blue Mountains.' (Oak Spring Flora). Fitch remained the chief (and usually sole) artist for the Botanical Magazine for forty-three years, producing over 9000 drawings including some of the most memorable images of his age.

Bibliography: (Nissen 910; Great Flower Books p.101

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Provenance : Collection of a Gentleman