The Australian Flower Paintings of Ferdinand Bauer [With text by William T. Stearn and an introduction by Wilfred Blunt]

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

London: The Basilisk Press 1976. Elephant folio bound in original quarter green morocco with marbled boards (lightly flecked). Preserved in the original solander case with paper title-label (slightly toned). With 25 full-page colour plates mounted on paper made in France by Canson et Montgolfier; and double-page map "The Voyage of H.M.S. Investigator." Edition limited to 515 numbered copies this being No. 5. Illustrated prospectus loosely inserted. Light foxing on some plates otherwise fine. NOTE: Through the intervention of Sir Joseph Banks Austrian-born botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer (1760-1826) was appointed botanical draughtsman on Matthew Flinders' 1801 voyage in the Investigator to survey the Australian coast (the voyage was somewhat tarnished by Flinders' six-and-a-half-year detention on Mauritius; though he did use this time to work on his A Voyage to Terra Australis published in 1814). Bauer was to work under Scottish naturalist Robert Brown. During the voyage Bauer and Brown collected some 3 400 plant species most of which were new to science as well as many animals (Prospectus). When Bauer disembarked at Liverpool in 1805 he had with him over 2000 drawings which he subsequently set about preparing for publication. Unfortunately only a small number were ever published at least in part because Bauer insisted on engraving and colouring the plates himself (Howgego 2004 B19 p. 33). Bauer's Illustrationes florae Novae Holliandiae of 1813 included fifteen plates all engraved and coloured by Bauer himself. As noted in the Oxford DNB (online edn 2008) the copper plates made for Bauer's Illustrationes still survive in London. Another ten of Bauer's drawings were engraved by other artists though were left uncoloured for publication in the atlas accompanying Flinders' A Voyage to Terra Australis. Bauer did however complete some 234 watercolour paintings from his original drawings now among the collections of the Natural History Museum in London. They are described as "superb examples of botanical illustration the work of one of its greatest masters at the height of his powers." (p. 7). The magnificent publication by The Basilisk Press here offered includes 25 full-size colour facsimiles from these original watercolour paintings. It commemorates the bicentenary of the birth of Robert Brown (1773) who was the first Keeper of Botany at the British Museum. The plates depict plant species from New South Wales Queensland the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Each plate is accompanied by a page of explanatory text which incorporates Brown's unpublished field notes as well as maps showing the location where the plant was collected. On display is the glorious work of Ferdinand Lukas Bauer "one of the finest botanical artists of the nineteenth century and possibly of all time" (Howgego p. 33); of Bauer who was "never to be surpassed in the scientific delineation of plants." (p. 9) The significance of this work which was limited to 515 numbered copies resides in the fact that so few of Bauer's paintings have been published and are thus seldom seen. Indeed as noted in the accompanying prospectus "[n]early all of the originals are owned by museums universities and libraries in Britain Germany and Austria where the paintings are kept in closed cabinets to prevent fading." When Bauer returned to Vienna in 1814 he took his Australian drawings with him and they are now preserved in the Naturhistorishes Museum in Vienna.