William Thompson Esq. The Walton Grange Gardens Stone Staffordshire 1898

22pp, 6 colour litho plates. Tall 4to. Lettered wrappers. Warappers a little worn. Staples slightly rusted else good. Sale conduced by Potheroe & Morris, Horticultural Auctioneers and Valuers. May 11th and 12th 1898. Lewis Castle, in his book on "Orchids, Their structure, history and culture" lists Thompson in his inventory of the principal amateur ochardists in Britain 1886. One or two red ink notes on prices on the first illustration.

Bedford, the Pyghtle Works 1906

112pp with b/w illustrations throughout and 2 colour plates. Original boards and cloth spine. Upper board has colour paste down illustration present. Small stain on upper board. cloth spine darkened but carefully repaired to make a good copy. Internally a little thumbed in places else good throughout. This particular catalogue is un-numbered. The Pyghtle Works were renowned for producing beautifully designed furniture of the highest quality, which they sold in Bedford and through Liberty & Co. in London. H.M Baillie Scott famously designed a series of 120 pieces for the company in 1901. This is a comprehensive catalogue of all garden- related products sold by the firm, including furniture (benches and seats designed by Baillie Scott), sculptures, summerhouses, pergolas etc. All items are illustrated, with measurements and prices given. Scarce.

Cambridge Mass. and London Yale University Press, Paul Mellon Studies for British Art

440pp, 300 colour and 100 b/w plates.Winner of the 2013 David R. Coffin Publication Grant, given by the Foundation for Landscape Studies. Inspired by the pioneering naturalist Gilbert White, who viewed natural history as the common study of cultural and natural communities. Mark Laird is a historic landscape consultant and garden conservator and teaches landscape history at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University.

London Faber and Faber Ltd 1956

First edition. 250pp b/w illustrations. 8vo.Cloth covered boards with illustrated dust wrapper. VG. First edition of this account of Rural life in the East Suffolk village of Blaxhall and the surrounding district. Illustrated by Thomas Bewick. Attractive illustrated survey by this well known writer and folklorist who became a dedicated collector of oral history and oral tradition in the East Anglian countryside from the 1940s to 1970.

London Architectural Press (1938) 2nd rev. ed. 1948

184pp, b/w plates and line illustrations. 4to. Cloth. d/w scuffed and slightly torn along the edges, otherwise in good condition. Assessses the historical traditions in landscape design as an introduction to contemporary garden design. Really one of the only books to address modern movement garden design.

Glasgow Garden Festival 1988

160pp illus with colour and b/w plates and including period ads. 4to. Decorated wrappers featuring Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Key source for the pavilions, gardens, outdoor sculpture and spaces. Loosely inserted press releases and photocopies relating to the event. Loosely inserted are two copies of one leaflet advertising the Gateshead festival to be held in 1990.

Milano Electa 1988

360pp illus with b/w and colour plates with illustrations drawn also from period maps and plans. Square 4to. Very good with dust wrapper. With nice slipcase. Individual contributors, each an expert in their field docujment individual gardens in the area. Superbly produced book. Text in Italian.

Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press 1924

(i-ii)+frontispiece+(iii-xxiv)+(i)+1-770, includes several full page illustrations as well as in-text illustrations, an appendix and an index, previous owner name and address in front board, green boards with gilt lettering on front board and spine, maps of the Metropolitan District of Boston showing local public holdings of the Metropolitan Park Commission from 24 January 1893 and 1 July 1910 inserted in front and rear pockets. 8vo. Biography of the American landscape architect Charles Eliot (1859-1897) which includes Eliot's own writings. Dedication page: For the dear son who died in his bright prime from the father. A very good copy. Eliot was a devotee of the picturesque and travelled to Europe to observe first hand the works of Repton, Brown, Prince Puklau Muskau. In his short career he worked in his own right before joining the Olmsted practice. He died at 38. HIs major legacy is aguably the landscape of the Charles River in Boston.

London Francis Lincoln 2008

256pp illus. Small 4to. Attractive bright yellow dust wrapper. Useful assessment of this key figure and author of the beautiful "Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris". His lifelong passion for plants was intimately bound up with the new dawn of scientific enquiry and the struggles of faith. The book follows him from a humble childhood in Lancashire to a career as an apothecary in London which would bring him to high office under Charles I. It investigates how he tried, with his medical colleagues, to create a new 'common wealth' to replace the old monastic system, vesting his effort in writing the most comprehensive and scientific herbal there had ever been in English. Yet as a Catholic he kept a low profile, quietly growing an extraordinary range of flowers for 'delight and pleasure' in his notable garden in Covent Garden.

London, Thames and Hudson 2006

192pp with colour illustrations throughout. Cloth in d/w, new copy, still in plastic wrapping. A survey of modern Brazilian garden design, divided into chapters on water features, planting features, abstraction features and sculpture features, each showcasing the work of a number of designers. Lovely illustrations. In print at 29.95.

nd c1880-1890

Hand written title page in ink "Isles of Scilly". 40 large format photographs, some 8x10 inches(203mm x 254mm) and others 6x8 inches(152mm x 203mm). + 5pp snapshots All sepia. Foxing to mounts and some browning to these all but the first two images unaffected by foxing. Late nineteenth century album rebound in modern cloth preserving original album spine. New end papers. Overall 80% of images are sharp, 20% have some fading but in all cases the interest and quality of the compositions is very good. The images comprise the house and gardens at Tresco Abbey including 2 striking 8x10 inch (203mm x 254mm) interiors of the house, further interiors and exteriors of one of the green houses, the ornamental grounds with subtropical plants including Yucca's and setting. Yet other images document social history aspects of the island. These document working life, daffodil fields, commercial flowers and fishing. Others concentrate on leisure pursuits including tennis + rowing. The sea is always present. 18 of the images are attributable to the the Gibsons and 8 to John Valentine but others have no attribution. The album includes two images of the contemporary ferry, possibly the Little Western. As well as an image of Cromwell's Castle, built after the 1651 conquest of the Scilly Isles it is one of the few surviving Cromwellian fortifications in Britain. Also excellent images record the unique coastal geology of Peninnis Head (Southern most point of saint Mary's) and Round Island Lighthouse designed by William Tregathen Douglass for Trinity House, completed in 1887. These images also give a fascinating insight into period dress. A rare insight into the social history, architecture, geology and horticulture of a unique island at at time when the proprietors of the Scilly's was Thomas Algernon Smith-Dorrien-Smith of Tresco Abbey.

A. Arruda, Azores 1962

18 b/w photographs. All images 240x175, mounts 450x370. Complete set of loose folios, possibly once into an album. Images very good. Mounts slightly scuffed at edges. Captions in white ink in Portuguese. The photographs record pineapple growing - the operation owned by Dr Augusto Rebello Arruda on the Azorean islands of island of St Michael. They were taken in 1962 to celebrate the visit of the president of the Portuguese Republic, Admiral Thomas Americo, and his wife. Pineapples in the Azores are grown under glass. The photographs illustrate the complete process: the gathering of materials, the erection and maintenance of large greenhouses, and the harvesting, packaging and exportation of the fruit. All photographs are accompanied by captions in Portuguese. Together they constitute a fascinating record of large-scale fruit-growing in the early 1960s, blending traditional and modern methods. A. Arruda Pineapple Plantation is still functioning today.

London: Printed for T Cadell, Strand 1832 Ist edition 1st Edition 1832

xii + 235pp illustrated with 16 lithographic plates. Octavo. Full calf and attractive boards with neo-classical gilt decoration. Original spine with five compartments, each decorated in a Neoclassical style and with guilt-lettered label. Guilt on spine is rubbed. Slight cracking to inner hinge. Original end papers. Vg copy of this very scarce and influential treatise. AEG. William Sawrey Gilpin was the nephew of William Gilpin, author of the Tours and he trained as was a water colour painter. This book discusses the link between painting and landscape design and provides detailed ideas on the construction of landscapes. He developed his own practice as a designer which grew into a substantial one. Features employed by Gilpin included amoeba-shaped flower beds, gently curving paths through irregular shrubberies, and raised terrace walks which are illustrated in the book. He designed Nuneham Courtney, Oxford Botanic Gardens, Clumber Park and worked at Scotney Castle to name but a few places with which he was involved. Very rare first edition.

Journal of Garden History Volume 8 no 2 and 3 1989

Special double issue edited by Joh Dixon Hunt. Parallel texts in English and Dutch. 16pp colour plates + 100s of b/w plates. Long 4to. Decorated wrappers. Produced in association with the major exhibition on gardens of these period hosted by Christies and also held at Het Loo.

London Journal of Horticulture Office 1877

iv +131pp with 10 wood engravings and b/w line diagrams throughout. 8vo. Original dark red pictorial cloth. Sl. rubbed at edges but generally very good. A collection of studies which were originally published as a series of communications in the Journal of Horticulture. This is a key reference for techniques of carpet bedding and the diagrams show the various layouts considered popular at the time of publication and practised within the London Parks. Includes accounts of all the major London parks and gardens. Exceptionally useful text for details of planting design with plant lists etc.

Cambridge, Mass, MIT Press 1988 (1975)

216pp illustrated in b/w. Wraps, lightly creased, else good. Applies Kevin Lynch's 'perceptual analysis' of urban space to the rural landscape, exploring how people move through it and identify with landmarks etc. In the second section of the book he explores the implications of this for the historically layered Japanese landscape. Translated by Charles Terry. From the library of the Landscape Design Trust, with small stamp on fep.

Edinburgh & London William Blackwood 1893

136pp with some text ills as line drawings, 24pp catalogue of books on rural affairs. Green gilt lettered cloth with rabbit in gilt on upper board. Very good. On how to set up a warren for commercial ends, the book represents a revival in estate management of breeding rabbits for commercial purposes. Fascinating period item for those interested in the history of estate management and landscape design of large parkland landscapes as well as those closely interested in the rabbit.