La Grande Flora de Colorado de Montaña y Llanos

Book Description

Denver, Colorado: Frank S. Thayer, [no date but plates with copyright date 1901]. Series I (all published), folio. (19 5/16 x 15 12/ inches). 1p. title/introduction with list of contents and limitation statement on the verso, printed in brown on thick paper. 12 chromolithographs by Percy W. Franklin after Osacr Achleitner, printed by Thayer, each print backed onto card and within its own matt, the oval opening of each matt framed by semi- relief decoration in blind, each image with descriptive text printed in brown on a thin paper protective guard covering the image, the guard attached to the backing card. Unbound as issued (except for the title/introduction which is bound to the lower cover) within the original morocco-grained cloth portfolio, brown morocco label on upper cover titled in gilt, fore-edge flap with fastener, wide dark blue satin ties with fastener, brown textured paper pastedowns. Beautiful and very rare western botanical work: limited to 1000 copies, this numbered 403. The present series of twelve images were all published by Thayer, despite his assertion, at the foot of the introduction, that "the public may anticipate the publication of the second series during the year 1902". A contemporary review published in that month noted that 'an "art portfolio," entitled "La grande flora de Colorado de Montana y Llanos," has been published by Frank S. Thayer, of Denver, Colorado. The ... series consists of illustrations, reproduced from water colors, of twelve " native wild flowers." The descriptions were prepared by Mrs. S. B. Walker, the well-known collector and cultivator of Colorado flowers. Her work has been exceptionally well done...' (The Botanical Gazette, vol.XXXIV, No.I, July 1902, p.79). The subjects of the plates were carefully selected from a State flora which, according to the publisher, "is perhaps the most diversified and extensive of any State in the Union. Botanists claim uupwards of 3,000 different varieties, extending from the plains at an altitude of about 4,000 feet to above the timber line in the mountains, at an elevation of about 14,000 feet". The flowers depicted are as follows: I. Wild rose -- II. Rocky Mountain aster -- III. Fairy's torch -- IV. Tiger lily -- V. Gaillardia -- VI. Pentstemon -- VII. Gilia -- VIII. Sand lily -- IX. Rocky Mountain thimble-berry -- X. Rocky Mountain columbine -- XI. Fringed gentian -- XII. Evening primrose. The text was provided by Sarah Bennett Walker, a Colorado pioneer, who was best known at the time as "the maker of many beautiful books of pressed wild flowers, besides ranking as an authority on the habitat of the various species" (introduction). OCLC 423995870 & 14193294

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