Editorial Reviews
Book Description
This authoritative and magnificently illustrated presentation of the art of flower depiction in the West is the third volume in a series of catalogues that describe the rare in some cases unique books, manuscripts, and other works of art conserved at Oak Spring Garden Library, Upperville, Virginia, a collection formed over many years by Rachel Lambert Mellon. The author, Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, has selected more than one hundred items from Oak Spring's extensive holdings, which include superb manuscript florilegia, botanical prints, books of instruction of every kind, still-life and vanitas paintings, and various ornamental ceramics and textiles. Among them are examples by some of the greatest names ever to have worked in either scientific or decorative botanical art Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, Georg Dionysius Ehret, Nicolas Robert, and Pierre Joseph Redoute.
An Oak Spring Flora is thematically organized, with topics ranging from Tulipomania and women artists to Dutch and Flemish painting and the search for exotics in remote lands. In her introductions the author provides the personal and contextual backgrounds that are essential for a real understanding and appreciation of floral illustration past and present. The sheer beauty as well as extraordinary skills encountered in, for example, manuscript florilegia by Jacob Marrel and Maria Sibylla Merian, hand-colored books by Pierre Vallet and G. B. Ferrari, and flower studies by John Constable and others, are testament to the high status accorded floral illustration over the centuries.
The latest addition to the Oak Spring Garden Library series will be of great interest to collectors of rare books and fine-art historians as well as to botanists, garden historians, and gardeners in general.
1997, 504 pages. 9-5/8 x 11-1/4 inches, including 200 illustrations, over 157 of them in color.
From the Publisher
Oak Spring Garden Library comprises Rachel Lambert Mellon's celebrated collection of rare books, manuscripts, works of art, and related artifacts concerning gardens, gardening, landscape design, horticulture, and botany. Conserved at Upperville, Virginia, in a striking library designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes in consultation with Rachel Mellon, the collection is both a unique historical archive and a day-to-day working resource. Among Rachel Mellon's own contributions to the art of garden design are the Rose Garden and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C. Her honors include the Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Royal Horticultural Society's Veitch Gold Medal, and the American Horticultural Society Landscape Design Award, and recently she has been recognized for her assistance during the restoration of the Potager du Roi at Versailles.
The cloth-bound catalogues that describe the holdings of the Oak Spring Garden Library are printed on acid-free paper and are designed, printed, and bound to the highest standards. Each volume is richly illustrated with duotone and color images.
An Oak Spring Sylva: A Selection of the Rare Books on Trees (1989)
An Oak Spring Pomona: A Selection of the Rare Books on Fruit (1990)
An Oak Spring Flora: Flower Illustration from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Time (1997)
An Oak Spring Hortus: Garden Design in the West since the Renaissance (forthcoming)
An Oak Spring Flora Mundi: Regional Floras and Travels (forthcoming)
An Oak Spring Herbaria: Herbs and Herbals in Western Culture (forthcoming)
The Oak Spring Garden Library : Volume III, An Oak Spring Flora (Oak Spring Garden Foundation Series)
The Oak Spring Garden Library: Volume III, An Oak Spring Flora (Oak Spring Garden Foundation Series),Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi,Yale University Press,0300071396,Art,Art & Art Instruction,Bibliography,Botanical illustration,Catalogs,Commercial - Illustration,Flowers,Illumination Of Books And Manuscripts,Natural History Illustration,Rare books,Techniques - Drawing,Upperville,Virginia,Art / Commercial / Illustration,Bibliographies, catalogues, discographies,Drawing & drawings,Horticulture,Illustration,Prints & printmaking,Watercolours
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