Tulip – Pierre Joseph Buch’oz, 1781-1797

Tulp – “Alexandre Le Grand” (plate III), copper engraving created by Pierre Joseph Buch’oz for his Collection coloriée des plus belles variétés de Tulipes qu’on cultive dans les Jardins des Fleuristes d’Harlem [colored collection of the most beautiful varieties of tulips cultivated in the gardens of florists in Haarlem], published between 1781 and 1797. With original hand colouring. Size (plate mark): 33 x 20.5 cm (frame: 46,5 x 34 cm).

In the second half of the eighteenth century, France saw a boom in natural history publications.

The accession of Louis XVI in 1774 was followed by a relaxation in the regulation of the book trade making it easier for authors to publish their own works. No other writer was to take such copious advantage of these two developments as Pierre-Joseph Buch’oz (1731-1807), a French physician, lawyer and naturalist. (His expertise lay in botany, but he was also interested in the treatment of melancholy and recommended music as therapy.)

Buch’oz’s works are characterised by the beauty of the illustrations, and their rarity owing to the small size of the print runs. The plates were published in installments and were sometimes bound into a book.

Price: SOLD