THE PLESCH COPY OF BATSCH'S COLOUR ILLUSTRATED BLUMENZERLIEDERUNGEN FROM 1790.

BATSCH, A. J. G. C. Analyses Florum e diversis plantarum generibus, omnes, etiam minutissimas eorum externas partes demonstrantes, ad eruendum harum partium characterem genericum, philosophiam botanicam, et generum intimiores affinitates a natura statutas. Blumenzergliederungen aus verschiedenenen Gattungen der Pflanzen, in welchen alle aussere, und selbst die kleinsten Theile der Blumen gezeigt werden, um ihre mit den Gattungen zusammenhangende Kennzeichnen, ihr wesentliches Verhaltnis unter einander, und die feinern naturlichen Verwandschaften der Gattungen naher zu bestimmen. I:1-2 (all published). Halle, bey Johann Jacob Gebauer, 1790.

4:o (about 250x195 mm.). (8, latin title missing), (1)-98; (4), (1)-120. 20 handcoloured engraved plates by J. S. Capieux after Batsch. (all)
Contemporary brown half calf, partly worn, mended in the joints, gilt spine, mended at head. German title to facs. I with offsetting from the bookplate. Red morocco bookplate of Arad Plesch.

Ref. Stafleu: TL-2 348; PLESCH: Mille et un livres botaniques de la Collection Arpad Plesch (1973) page 135; Nissen: BBI 90; Pritzel 478*.

August Johann Georg Carl Batsvh (1761-1802), German botanist at Jena, professor of botany, director of "Physicalische Gesellschaft".

Provenance: Arad Plesch (1889–1974) was a Hungarian financier, banker, and lawyer. He owned a celebrated collection of rare botanical books and esoteric pornography. His botanical collection has been included in Douglas Cooper's Great Private Collections; Olle Wallin (1934-2021), economist who began his professional career working for the Swedish commercial bank Svenska Handelsbanken, after which he was employed by the construction company Beijers, working under Anders Wall. His interest in books and nature was inspired by his parents, both avid book collectors and interested in natural history. Wallin began collecting seriously after moving to Stockholm in the 1970's, and frequently visited the many antiquarian book shops as well as attended the auctions. His line of work also required extensive travel, foremost to the European continent and the US, and he usually took the opportunity to combine the business trips with visits to leading antiquarian book sellers and auction houses. Many of the more important and valuable works in his collection were acquired on those occasions.

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