Robert Furbers Twelve Months of Flowers, complete set of the 12 hand-colored engravings from 1730.

Set of 12 hand-colored copper-engraved plates. Engraved by H. Fletcher from paintings by Pieter Casteels. Images approx. 40.5x30.5 cm. (16x12") including engraved key at bottom, on sheets 46x36 cm (18¼x14"). Unbound.
A lovely set of these remarkable still-life engravings of flowers, the result of the collaboration of three leading figures in their respective fields in England in the first half of the eighteenth century: the artist Pieter Casteels, the engraver Henry Fletcher, and the nurseryman Robert Furber. The publication was conceived as both a commercial venture, to sell bound sets of the engravings, and as a high quality seed catalogue for Furber`s nursery at Kensington. The exquisite hand-colored prints depict over 400 different species of flowers which are grouped according to the month in which they bloom, set in vases. Each flower is numbered and keyed to a legend at the bottom of the plate so that customers could easily order what they fancied. This was the first commercial horticultural catalogue of its time and as such, it represents a defining point in the history of botanical illustration and horticultural literature in Britain. The commercial success of the publication led to the publication of a companion series, the Twelve Months of the Year in Fruit of 1733, which Casteels also designed in conjunction with Furber. This set does not include the subscriber's list/title leaf, which was issued later and is often not present. It is otherwise complete with all the monthly flower engravings, very rare thus. Blunt p. 57; BMNH II.632; Dunthorne 117; Henrey 733; Nissen BBI 674. Provenance: purchased by the current owner from the Old Print Shop in New York.
Condition:
Some very light foxing, mostly in the margins, short tears in lower margins of July and August plates repaired with old paper on versos, February plate tipped at left corners to old leaf, in very good or better condition, the coloring bright.

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[junikilla13]

i have a spring one and number 22 china pink is missing

[TheRJMortimer]

hey i got may and june what are they worth you think????? ill send pics if you need them

[TheLastWordtv]

How much did the Furbers sell for?