Rare influential gardening book from the Library of Josiah Wedgwood with Wedgwood’s Bookplate.
“Gardening, in the perfection to which it has been lately brought to in England, is entitled to a place of consideration among the liberal arts”
[WHATELY, Thomas (1726-72)]. Observations On Modern Gardening, Illustrated by Descriptions. Second Edition (occasional light spotting). Contemporary calf (spine chipped with loss, joints and inner hinges split, binding a little frail, boards loose, wearing to calf).
[8], 257, [1] pp.
8vo. London: T. Payne, 1770.
PROVENANCE: Josiah Wedgwood Etruria (bookplate to front paste-down). Two additional bookplates on front pastedown including: ‘’Milton, Peterborough” and R.E.W. Maddison.
Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95) needs no introduction as he is without doubt one of the most influential figures in European Pottery. Wedgwood amassed quite a significant library, of which this book is a very rare example.
“Wedgwood’s wife complained that he was filling the house with books. Josiah stated to Thomas Bentley: ‘My Sally says I must buy no more books until I build her a new house & suggests I read some of those I have already – what nonsense she talks sometimes’.” [Source: Wedgwood Museum].
ETRURIA refers to the Etruria Works: a ceramics factory opened by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769 in a district of Staffordshire. The factory ran for 180 years.
Please note that combined postage options can be arranged on some items, by request.