LA THEORIE ET LA PRATIQUE DE JARDINAGE, OU L’ON TRAITE A FOND DES BEAUX JARDINS APELLÉS COMMUNÉMENT LES JARDINS DE PLAISANCE ET DE PROPRETÉ, CONTENANT PLUSIERS PLANS ET DISPOSITIONS GENERALES DE JARDINS; NOUVEAU DESSINS DE PARTERRRES, DE BOSQUETS, DE BOULINGRINS, LABYRINTHES, SALLES, GALERIES, PORTIQUES & CABINETS DE TREILLAGES, TER- ∫ | 11 RASSES, ESCALIEERS, FONTAINES, CASCADES, & AUTRES ORNEMENS SERVANT À LA DÉCORATION & EMBÉLISSEMENT DES JARDINS . . . NOUVELLE EDITION AUGMENTÉE CONSIDERABLEMENT. by DEZALLIER D’ARGENVILLE, ANTOINE JOSEPH - 1750

Two volumes, plates and text. Full tan calf with five raised bands, gilt decoration and ornaments. Worn and separating at joints. Old library bookplates on front pastedowns. Erasure on front free endpaper of Vol. II, leaving hole. Old ink stains at bottom of text block of each volume, appearing only at very outermost edge of some pages. Plates clean with fine dark impressions of the plates. Contemporary bindings preserved in attractive and sturdy modern brown half-leather and cloth clamshell box. The major influence on the theory and practice of the 18th century English and continental pleasure garden with specific information on the construction and placement of the parterres, terraces, labyrinths, fountains, trellises, and other natural and ornamental elements mentioned in the title. With 38 plates, most double-page, and woodcut figures in the text. Fowler 170 (Paris 1709 edition catalogued under Le Blond, Jean Baptiste Alexandre). "This book, in which the methods of the great LeNôtre were reduced to a system, remains to this day the standard authority on the formal garden. It was written by D'Argenville the elder, under the instructions and supervision of the architect, J.B. Alexandre Le Blond, with whose designs engraved by Mariette, the book is illustrated." European Pleasure Gardens . . . from the Elizabeth K. Reilley Collection 16: "Expanded, translated, and pirated to meet the demands of a public eager to imitate French gardens, Dezallier's work appeared in sixteen editions over the next fifty years."