Illustrations of the Fungi of our Fields and Woods. Drawn from Natural Specimens. [First]-Second Series

Description:

Complete in two parts. Fine hand-coloured plates, illustrating approximately 130 species of fungi, after drawings by the author, lithographed by W.H. Fitch and printed by Vincent Brooks. Dedicated, with his permission, to Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published by subscription, with a printed list of just over 200 names, including Dr. Hooker, the eminent mycologist M.C. Cooke, natural historians Sir Oswald Mosley and Edwin Brown (joint authors of The Natural History of Tutbury, 1863), the Shropshire botanist and bibliophile Beriah Botfield, the celebrated manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps, the Shakespearean scholar J.O. Halliwell, and the Royal Herbarium Library, Kew.

An attractive and important early work of British mycology by Sarah Price (fl. 1864-1865), a largely forgotten botanical artist and amateur mycologist who lived at Bitterley, near Ludlow, Shropshire. Little is known of her life, but her beautifully executed illustrations, drawn from natural specimens, demonstrate a close familiarity with the fungi of the surrounding countryside. In her preface, dated Bitterley, 1864, she explains that the species illustrated were selected principally from those occurring in her own neighbourhood, which make 'meadow, hill, and valley gay by their abundance'. The accompanying descriptions provide valuable contemporary records of habitats, localities and, frequently, months of occurrence. Many refer specifically to Bitterley and its immediate surroundings, including Bitterley Wood, Bitterley Court and Bitterley churchyard, while others record fungi from Acton Scott, Buttington and the neighbourhood of Ludlow.

The nomenclature follows the Rev. M.J. Berkeley's Outlines of British Fungology (1860). Published for the author by Lovell Reeve & Co., with financial support from subscribers, the work represents a notable achievement by a woman naturalist at a time when scientific publication was largely dominated by men. One of the relatively few illustrated mycological works produced by British women during the mid-nineteenth century, it is of particular historical interest both for the quality of its botanical illustrations and as an early pictorial record of the fungi of Shropshire. Its scientific value was subsequently acknowledged by the Shropshire mycologist William Phillips, who described Price's illustrations as 'true to nature' in his The Hymenomycetes of Shropshire (1880).

Nissen BBI 1568; Stafleu & Cowan 8323.

Condition

2 vols, large 4to, orig. green cloth with gilt vignette of fungi and gilt title to upper boards, blind-stamped decorative border to both boards, minor wear, some light staining to spines, and a light old water stain to the front and rear endpapers of Series I, otherwise very clean. Plates bright and beautifully coloured, a few coming loose in Series I. Very good.

Provenance: Contemporary ownership signature 'A. Orde' to title-page of Part I, probably Anna Maria Fenn Orde (1806-1894), daughter of Admiral Sir John Orde, 1st Baronet, apparently identifiable with 'Miss Orde' in the list of subscribers. Her brother, Sir John Powlett Orde, 2nd Baronet, and Lady Orde are also named among the subscribers.

Tipped in at front endpaper of Series I is an interesting printed circular from the author, dated Bitterley, Ludlow, February 1864, thanking subscribers for their support and inviting them to renew their subscriptions for the proposed second part, requesting confirmation of their intentions when remitting payment for Part I. Loosely inserted in Series II is a contemporary printed prospectus for James Bateman's forthcoming A Monograph of Odontoglossum, advertised as 'Preparing for Publication, in Imperial Folio, Five Coloured Plates, Price £1 1s.' (single leaf, printed on both sides).