La Langage Des Fleurs. Nouvelle Selamographie, Edition Illustree De Bouquets Allegoriques Lambert, Madame J.-J. [I. E. Rostaing, Jules?] Art & Architecture,Illustrated,Women & Writing

THE SYMBOLISM OF FLOWERS AND THE ART OF FLOWER-ARRANGING. 8vo. VIII pp, 9-180 pp, with frontispiece and 11 hand-colored plates. Bound in contemporary half-red cloth over marbled boards with gilt title on spine. A wonderfully clean and fresh copy. Rare sole edition (?) of this remarkable emblematic dictionary of flowers, comprehensively covering their symbolism in art and in the new practice of ‘selamography’ – from selam, an Eastern word for a semiotic bouquet. The preface makes it clear that the work is intended for women, and gives several working examples: a reader might send a bouquet of Euphorbia, Helianthus, Fusain, Ornithogale pyramide, and Myosotis or Achilles Mille-feuille to her love interest: this literally means "I was unable to sleep, my eyes see only you, your image is engraved upon my heart, my love is pure, love me like I love you, or cure me of this ill". Following a complete ‘lexicon’ of flowers and their meanings (from Apricot [‘unyielding heart’] to Zinnia [‘Be on your guard’], Madame Lambert provides a concise Dictionnaire Emblématique des Plantes, des Feuilles, des Fleurs et des Fruits", which is perhaps more suited to the artist than the bouquet exchanger: cinnamon represents chastity; Datura stramonium (Jimson Weed) represents ‘disguise or artifice’; a fig of course represents modesty; and so on. A chapter on arranging flowers stresses aesthetic considerations: "it is necessary to avoid placing two primary colors next to each other, like dark yellow, carmine or blue one notices that dark green goes nicely with light colors, and light green goes well next to more somber tones ". The title-page declares this to be an ‘illustrated edition’, but we have been unable to trace any earlier appearance. OCLC shows just two copies worldwide, none in US libraries; in those records, the true author is suggested to be Jules Rostaing, a prolific hack-writer.