Early Gardening Book with Technical Elevations

STEELE, Richard.  AN ESSAY UPON GARDENING.

York: The Author, 1793. 4to. Contemporary quarter-calf, marbled boards. xx, (ii), (ii), 102, (6) pages, 3 engraved folding plates. First edition. [Henrey, 1384].

Steele's is one of the earliest and most important English gardening books on the construction of several different types of greehouses, with details on their heating and use.  One of the three folding plates feature plans and an elevation of a greenhouse erected by the botanist R.Z. Salisbury in his garden at Chapel Allerton near Leeds.  Steele received considerable assistance in writing this book from Adrian Hardy Haworth (1768-1833) who provided an extensive list of plants suitable for greenhouse growth.  The book is rare.  We could only find two copies for sale at auction during the past thirty years, the last selling in 1989.  OCLC lists nine copies as being in United States libraries.  The book is an uncommon example of a gardening book sold by subscription during the eighteenth century.  It lists two hundred and seventy-five subscribers, including fifteen in a supplemental list.  A marginal stain to the upper tip of the subscriber's list and light foxing to plates.  Light wear to cover, but overall a very nice, bright copy of a rare and important gardening title.

$4,500.00