The Ladies' Flower Garden of Ornamental Greenhouse Plants.

First edition, handsomely bound by Wareing Webb of Liverpool, of this beautifully illustrated work by an important female science writer.

A self-taught artist, Jane Loudon (1807-1858) ranks as one of the most successful female botanical illustrators. Her attractive plates, known for their bright colour, became extremely sought after and were often imitated in designs for decorative products. She began her literary career with the futuristic novel The Mummy (1827), and only began to write botanical works after her marriage to John Loudon, the horticultural publisher and writer. Aware that the abundance of technical terms in horticultural books were off-putting to new gardeners, particularly women, she set about writing gardening books and articles in a more accessible fashion.

First edition; 4to (27 x 22 cm), 42 hand-coloured lithographic plates, binder's ink stamp of Webb of Liverpool to the verso of the front free endpaper, a little light spotting and toning, 4 plates with heavier spotting; contemporary green half morocco, marbled sides, spines elaborately gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, boards a little rubbed and scuffed with some repairs to the corners, lower corner of volume II bumped, very good condition; 215pp.