The Floral Cabinet: A handmade family herbarium including poems

Second Hand
Hardback
Book Condition: Fair.

A hand-made 200-page half-leather folio-sized treasury of pressed-flowers and beautifully handwritten poems in the Romantic Era style of the time; with connections to Southport and the Isle of Man. A stunning hand-drawn title page with calligraphic ornamentation is followed by 96 pages of neatly attached pressed flowers (IRO 4-10 specimens per page), the majority of them facing a page of elegantly hand-written poetry (with the handwriting of several hands appearing throughout) relating to at least one of the flowers on the opposite page. Most of the text is not attributed to any particular author, however having looked closely at the first 13 textual pages, there are a small number of poems by well-known poets including Burns & Landon but the majority are from lesser-known poets of the time, often only finding a single publication in which they appeared. The rest of the textual pages have not been assessed so it is possible that it may contain some original poems or prose. The herbarium has been assessed by the Senior Reserves Officer of Cumbria Wildlife Trust and a printed spreadsheet is included detailing the specimens that are found on each page, with a small number remaining unidentified. Condition report: Red half-leather folio (25x37cm) with black boards, rubbed and worn all round; hinges and joints mostly intact, both joints just starting at top. Internally moderately age-toned and lightly foxed with light creasing throughout. A little soiling to the title page. Some pages are well thumbed and lightly soiled and a very small number have been attacked by a toddler’s pencil. A very small number of leaves have been torn with some loss. Most of the pages have most or all of their original specimens, with some that have become detached and remain loose inside and others missing; foxing ‘shadows’ have been left where specimens have become loose or lost. Overall Fair. Photos available upon request. A unique acquisition.