Les Parcs et Jardins

2 volumes, VIII, VIII, 160-pp. continuously paginated, by the Belgian-born landscape architect, containing detailed descriptions of 80 gardens for many of the leading estates in 19th-century France, as well as a few examples from abroad, primarily in the landscape or "paysagiste" style prevalent at the time, with 80 superb lithographic plates showing plans of the gardens, the plates in Volume I in black-and-white, the plates in Volume II in bright colors, with residences and auxiliary buildings, and with the coat-of-arms of each family in color, original etched frontispiece portrait of the author by Henry Valentin. Very minor scattered foxing and toning, plates bright and clear. Large folio. Cloth-backed boards, some abrasions, soiling, and damp-staining to covers, rubbing, edgewear. Paris (Chez l'Auteur) 1871-1878. A rare and beautiful work, which gives a vivid picture of the moneyed class at the time in France and abroad. The gardens include many formal elements such as avenues and canals, kitchen and fruit gardens, and extensive notes on planting and the decorative use and care of many kinds of trees. Some of the estates and institutions included are the Ecole de botanique in Paris, an innovative garden with pavilions for a progressive co-ed asylum in the rue de Picpus in Paris, public gardens and parks such as the Jardin de l'Etoile a Passy, the main square and public gardens in the town of Koutaïs in modern-day Georgia, and several schools, together with private estates of Salomon de Rothschild, the Baron d'Herlincourt, the Archbishop of Paris, members of old French and Russian families, and two of the recently-accepted Jewish members of French high society. There are examples from Switzerland, England, Spain, and Russia.