The Compleat Gard'ner: Or, Directions for Cultivating And Right Ordering Of Fruit-Gardens, And Kitchen-Gardens; with divers reflections on several parts of husbandry [LACKING TWO PLATES] by La Quintinye, Jean-Baptiste - 1693

Spread Eagle Westminster hall : Matthew Gillyflower & James Partidge, 1693. First English edition. Illustrated with an engraved portrait frontispiece, nine engraved plates (of eleven - so LACKING two plates), a few small wooducts in the text, many charming engraved chapter headings, folio, title page printed in red and black, pp (42), 188, 208, 4, 80, the top, bottom and fore-edge red, a few blemishes internally but overall very clean, the hinge before the frontispiece cracked but sound, contemprary calf, rebacked probably in the ealy nineteenth century, a little bumped and worn, the spine with more wear and a little splitting and fraying at the head and tail. An early un-named owner, obviously a knowledgeable and proficient gardener, has contributed half a page of manuscript notes on the first front blank, in which he questions, inter alia, why the author has not included mustard-seed in the list of all things that a kitchen-garden should contain; there are also neat marginal notes throughout in the same hand - these are in no way detrimental, and indeed enhance the book. Blanche Henrey 218. [One of the most influential books in the history of fruit culture. Evelyn's edition (though almost certainly the translation work of George London) not only brought the French work to an entirely new audience, it added short sections on the culture of orange trees and melons which were not in the original.]. First English edition. Full-Leather. Good.