Author:Desmond, Ray

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Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker: traveller and plant collector

By: Desmond, Ray

Price: £24.00

Publisher: Antique Collectors' Club & R.B.G. Kew: 1999

Edition: 1st edition

Seller ID: 2869

ISBN: 1 85149 305 0

Binding: Hard covers, dust jacket

Condition: Fine

Sir Joseph Hooker was well known as Director of Kew Gardens, but his explorations of the Himalayas and the Southern Hemisphere are equally distinguished aspects of his career. A close friend of Charles Darwin, he too derived scientific insights and inspiration from his visits to the exotic island floras of New Zealand, Australia and the Falklands, as well as encountering the very distinctive Cape Flora of South Africa. The exquisitely Colonial tableau of an Indian collector presenting him looking a bit like Edward Lear) with a Rhododendron - described with superb tact by Ray Desmond as a 'whim...
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Great natural history books and their creators

By: Desmond, Ray

Price: £20.00

Publisher: The British Library / Oak Knoll Press: 2003

Edition: 1st edition

Seller ID: 7259

ISBN: 0 7123 4774 7

Binding: Hard covers, dust jacket

Condition: Fine

Ambitiously conceived and grandly executed natural history books, with their sumptuous large-format illustrations, are now some of the most expensive antiquarian collectors' items. This book attempts to put them in context; though the last chapter (on 'clerics as authors') does sit rather uncomfortably alongide treatments of Temple of Flora, Birds of America and Flora Graeca. Printed on high quality heavyweight paper, this book's 176 pages are crammed with interesting insights. In the words of one of the chapter headings, 'a curious tale'.
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Cumulative index to Garden History Society's Quarterly Newsletter, Garden History journal, Newsletter (1981-86) and Occasional Papers 1 & 2

By: Desmond, Ray

Price: £10.00

Publisher: Garden History Society: n.d. (1986)

Edition: 1st edition

Seller ID: 10854

Binding: Paper covers

Condition: As new

Covers all the Garden History Society's publications from 1966 to 1986. 12 pp.
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Wonders of creation: natural history drawings in the British Library

By: Desmond, Ray

Price: £24.00

Publisher: The British Library: 1986

Seller ID: 579

ISBN: 0 7123 0071 6

Binding: Hard covers, dust jacket

Condition: Fine

The first half of this erudite book is an introduction to natural history illustration, and is partly chronological and partly thematic. Following a select bibliography, 49 full-page colour illustrations are provided of some of the British Library's 'treasures', with an index of manuscripts and a general index. Almost half are from the India Office Library, where the author then worked. 248 pp.
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