Sale 2512 - Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books, June 6, 2019

277 c   ALLEN, JOHN FISK; and SHARP, WILLIAM. Victoria Regia; or the Great Water Lily of America. 6 chromolithographed plates, letterpress title, dedication to Caleb Cope, 12 pages of text (numbered [5]-16), and terminal leaf with index, plate list, note and errata. Imperial folio, 27x21 1 / 2 inches, original cloth backed printed boards, fully intact with only minor wear; plates clean and fresh, blank interleaves and text sheets with image offsetting, plates with registration pinholes. Boston: for the author by Dutton & Wentworth, 1854 [15,000/20,000] an exceptional copy of an exceptional book . William Sharp’s large-format chromolithographed plates of the life phases of exotic giant flowering water lilies are some of the finest botanical images ever produced in America. They are also some of the earliest to employ the multi-stone printing process. “One of the most striking of American botanical books, this is also among the most successful examples of early chromolithography… in the large water lily plates of Victoria Regia, Sharp printed colors with a delicacy of execution and technical brilliance never before achieved in the United States” (Reese).