The Compleat Gard'ner; or, Directions for Cultivating and Right Ordering of Fruit-Gardens and Kitchen-Gardens; with Divers Reflections on Several Parts of Husbandry. In Six Books. By the Famous Mon sr. de la Quintinye, Chief Director of All the Gardens of the French-King. To Which is Added His Treatise of Orange-Trees, with the Raising of Melons, Omitted in the French Editions. Made English by John Evelyn Esquire, Illustrated with Copper Plates. London: Printed for Matthew Gillyflower, and James Partridge, MDCXCIII (1693).
THE VERY RARE 1693 FIRST EDITION OF THIS IMPORTANT WORK ON GARDENING IN A PHENOMENAL CONTEMPORARY BINDING!
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The author was director of the fruit and kitchen gardens of the French royal households from 1670 to 1688. This first English edition includes a section on Orange-Trees and Melons, not found in the French editions. Worse copies have sold at auction for £1,300 (Forum Auctions, 26th May 2022 lot 320) and $1,680 (Swann Auctions Dec 6th 2012 lot 303). This is quite possibly one of the best obtainable copies, particularly for its originality, and having notable provenance, formerly a part of the Plesch Library collection, sold at Sotheby's in 1975-76.
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Provenance:
Armorial bookplate of Tho's: Griffin Esq, bookplate of John Durdin dated 1980, and a red leather bookplate from the collection of Arpad Plesch (1889-1974), reading "Arpad Ex-Libris Plesch." Plesch was a Hungarian banker and lawyer who is very well known for his famous collection of rare Botanical books.
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Size: 210 x 319 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[frontis, t.p., 1ff., 15pp., 3pp., 4pp., 4pp., 14pp., foldout plate, 184pp., 4pp., 204pp., 3pp., 80pp.]
Full brown spotted calf with a red tooled label in a compartment to the spine between raised bands, other compartments with decorative gilt. Binding rubbed and scuffed, more so to the spine. Both boards attached with the joints cracked, front hinge cracked, and the rear hinge worn. Shelf and edge wear. Spotted page edges dulled. Bookplates attached to the front pastedown and front blank. No ownership inscriptions. Text block very clean with light edge toning and occasional foxing. Foldout plate facing pp.177 of Part VI., with the bottom inscription on the plate crossed out, but legible, with a new inscription written underneath. Occasional small edge tears. Previous clear tape repairs to the front hinge. Very small wormholing to the last few leaves of the text block.
