The Flower Book. Reproductions of Thirty-Eight Watercolour Designs by Edward Burne-Jones

London: Fine Art Society, 1905. First edition. Hardcover. Housed in green cloth box, black leather spine label printed in gilt. Fine. Burne-Jones, Edward. Unpaginated. 32 x 26.5 cm. Limited edition, copy 213 of 300. 31 of 38 circular coloured plates (lacking nos. 2, 10, 18, 20, 23, 25, 32) after the original watercolours by Burne--Jones. Index of Plates. Produced by Piazza, the esteemed publisher of the famed "L'Estampe Moderne." Burne-Jones' memorable images for this book were painted at a seaside home in Rottingdean, Sussex which had wonderful and expansive gardens. Based on Arthurian legends and folklore, the illustrations form a kind of double-entendre, with the plant name forming the inspiration for the artwork. The color process for the book was innovative and highly effective, involving a process similar to collotype, but appearing similar to pochoir. In his opening comment Burne-Jones notes, "The Pictures in this book are not pictures of flowers themselves, but of subjects suggested by their names." He began the series for his own pleasure in 1882... keeping by him a list of beautiful names that he had met with & choosing subjects amongst them from time to time according to his mood. All the pictures take the same form, a circle about six inches in diameter - a kind of magic mirror in which the vision appears - and he wished them not to be separated, because, wide as is their scope, one spirit, that of pure fantasy, unites them. After his death, his wife Georgina decided to make an edition: the publisher Piazza reproduced the watercolor gouaches in collotype, which he colored with stencil. In 1909 Georgina Burne - Jones sold the original watercolors and gouaches to the British Museum. After the last plate: "FACSIMILE OF PART OF THE LISTS OF FLOWERS MADE BY SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES AT THE OF THE FLOWER BOOK." Four pages of hand written ink names of flowers.