Thornton's Temple of Flora - The Flower of Botanical Books | EX-COLL.

The Flower of Botanical Books | EX-COLL. THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE THORNTON, Robert John (ca. 1768–1837). New illustration of the sexual system of Carolus Von Linnaeus: comprehending an elucidation of the several parts of the fructification; a prize dissertation on the sexes of the plants; a full explanation of the classes, and orders, of the sexual system; and the Temple of Flora, or Garden of Nature, being picturesque, botanical, coloured plates, of select plants, illustrative of the same, with descriptions. London: T. Bensley for the publisher (Thornton), 1799–1807[–1810]. First edition. Here is what AI says it’s worth: $200,000. Cost: Christie’s London sale of the RSM collection, 10 December 2024, lot 193 - GBP 40,640. Three parts in two volumes. Broadsheet folio (22 5/8” x 17 7/8”, 574mm x 455mm). Vol. I: binders blank, π-9π1 a-g1 *g-*h1 h-s χ-3χ1 2a-b1 4χ-5χ, binders blank [$1 signed]. 36 leaves, pp. [58] (part 1), [14] (part 2). With 126 plates: 27 aquatint-engravings (or aquatint-stipple engravings), 35 engravings, 63 stipple-engravings and 1 mezzotint; 24 of which portrait-medallions of botanists (plus 2 additional portraits of Linnaeus) and 85 of which are pictorial-botanical (i.e., non-diagrammatic). Vol. II: binders blank, π-20π1 a-d1 χ1 e-f1 2χ-6χ1 A-C1 7χ-43χ1 D-F1 2A-C1 44χ1, binders blank [$1 signed]. 79 leaves, pp. [158]. With 39 plates: 7 engraved plates, 1 stipple-engraved portrait of Queen Charlotte and 31 hand-colored (stipple- and/or aquatint-)engraved plates (some printed in color), of which 3 are allegorical and 28 botanical. With 165 plates in toto, of which 31 are hand-colored. Bound in XXc half green morocco over green pebbled cloth by W. Easy (signed gilt at the lower front turn-in of each volume). On the spines, five raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, author and date (vol. I: 1807, vol. II: 1799) gilt to the third and “Roy. Soc. Med.” gilt to the tail of each volume. A little splayed, with some rubbing. Spines sunned, with residue of labels to the heads. Repaired chipping and loss to the fore-edge of “Analysis, or Division of Corollas” (second table of part first), not affecting the image. An old repaired tear to the fore-edge of s (the final leaf of part first), not affecting the text. A gutter-stain to the first three leaves of part first. Foxed in passages, particularly to the front- and end-matter, essentially confined to the letterpress (except the three dedication leaves and portrait of Queen Charlotte in vol. II). Many of the plates tanned peripherally. Some offsetting from the plates, particularly colored. Ink ownership stamps of the Royal Society of Medicine (dated 3 December 1935) to the verso of the frontispiece portrait of Linnaeus and to the title-page in vol. I, as well as to the vol. II title-page. Accession number (48104) and shelf-mark (G. 3. e) in graphite (except for the accession number in vol. I) to the title-page of each volume. Robert John Thornton (ca. 1768–1837) conceived a grand project in three parts: a dissertation on the sexual reproductive cycle of plates; an explanation of Linnaeus’s plant system, lavishly illustrated with botanical plates and portraits of botanists; and The Temple of Flora which was to have no fewer than seventy large plates of exotic plant species arranged according to the classification system of Linnaeus. The folio edition incurred an enormous financial loss, and by 1811 Thornton had secured an Act of Parliament (51 George III, cap. 103) to run a lottery by which to bail himself out. He failed to regain financial solvency and ended his days as a practicing medical doctor. The production of the plates for The Temple of Flora involved a variety of techniques: aquatint, mezzotint, stipple engraving and stippling with line engraving or etching. Only the plate of the rose was drawn by Thornton and executed by Earlom; the rest brought in a wide network of artists. In spite of using a host of artists and engravers, Thornton managed to “maintain a remarkable homogeneity of style throughout” (An Oak Spring Flora). To the technical descriptions of the plants are added quotations from ancient and modern poetry (a great many coming from the pen of Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles), which add to the ineffable Regency loveliness of the work. Dunthorne (301) reports “32 unnumbered plates of flowers, though all of these do not occur in the same volume, generally 29 or 30; Thornton making up the volumes differently.” This last part — the varying makeup of the work — is crucial. In the present volume are the following (numbered by me rather than on the plates; titles without numerals have only one state; a full account of the plates included in the work is available): The Snowdrop [Dunthorne state II, watermark H Smith 1810] The Persian Cyclamen [III, E&P 1804] Hyacinths [II, H Smith] Roses [II, center rose dark pink edged in yellow, H Smith] A Group of Carnations [III, H Smith 1810] A Group of Auriculas [two; II, H Smith 1810] Tulips [II, H Smith 1810] The Queen Flower [E&P 1806] The American Aloe [H Smith 1810] The Nodding Renealmia [II, Whatman 1810] The Night-Blowing Cereus [A, II, H Smith] The oblique-leaved Begonia [III, H Smith 1810] Large Flowering Sensitive Plant [III, H Smith] Blue Passion Flower [III, H Smith] The Winged Passion-Flower [III, H Smith 1810] The Quadrangular Passion-Flower [III, H Smith 1810] The White Lily with Variegated-leaves [IV, E&P] The Superb Lily [B, IV, H Smith] The Dragon Arum [IV, H Smith] The Maggot-Bearing Stapelia [II, H Smith] American Bog Plants [II, E&P] The Pontic Rhododendron [H Smith] The American Cowslip [II, H Smith 1810] The Narrow Leaved Kalmia [H Smith] The China Limodoron [H Smith] The Indian Reed [II, H Smith] The sacred Indian Bean [H Smith 1810] The Blue Egyptian Water Lily [E&P 1806] The positive reception of the work is difficult to overstate. Alan G. Thomas (Great Books and Book Collectors; London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1975; p. 144) writes that it is “the most strikingly beautiful set of flower plates ever to be printed in England [and] one of the loveliest books in the world.” Geoffrey Grigson in his and Handasyde Buchanan’s Thornton’s Temple of Flora (London: Collins, 1951; p. 2) writes that it is “an immense work in many volumes which in scope, illustration, paper and typography would surpass anything in any other European country.” Wilfrid Blunt in Sitwell’s Great Flower Books (New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990; p. 43) unequivocally calls it “one of the greatest prizes of collectors of fine flower-books.” W. Easy of London has been recorded as the binder of several volumes belonging to the Royal Society of Medicine as well as to the Royal College of Surgeons in the early XXc. The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), founded right around the time of Thornton’s publication (1805) stands with the other royal endowments as a membership organization committed to professional excellence. By the mid-XIXc its library was one of the great collection of medical books — a category in which the present work must be included, despite its aesthetic ambitions. The present set was acquired at the Christie’s London sale of highlights from the RSM collection, 10 December 2024, lot 193. Cleveland Collections 722; Dunthorne 301; Nissen, BBI 1955; Sitwell, Great Flower Books p. 143; Stafleu-Cowan 14283; Thomas, Great Books and Book Collectors p. 144.

Estimate:£134,527.5

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