La Botanique Rousseau, J[Ean] J[Acques] Botanicals,Flowers,Hand-Colored,Illustrated Books

Large quarto (10" x 13-1/2") bound in contemporary red leather-backed boards, all edges gilt. Illustrated with 64 (of 65) stipple-engraved plates, printed in color and finished by hand, by Bouquet, Gabriel, and others after Pierre Joseph Redoute. NISSEN 1688; (STAFLEU) GREAT FLOWER BOOKS page 74: " This work is Redoute's last link with the ancient regime: his old patrons had all died, or like Cels, who died in 1806, had ceased to be influential. Redoute had entered easily into a new life under the Empire. On the whole, it can be said that it is remarkable how little Redoute was affected by the political and social changes that took place around him." Rousseau was an amateur botanist whose interest in the subject was heightened by his enforced exile amonts the natural beauties of Switzerland. Foxing to text and plates, though less so to the latter; both covers detached. Good with attractive plates