GREENAWAY, Kate

Language of Flowers

London: George Routledge and Sons, 1884. Item #06440

The Language of Flowers

GREENAWAY, Kate. Language of Flowers. Illustrated by Kate Greenaway. Printed in Colours by Edmund Evans. London: George Routledge and Sons, [n.d., 1884].

First edition. Twelvemo (5 13/16 x 4 3/16 inches; 146 x 117 mm.). 80 pp. Color-printed wood-engraved text illustrations.

Original green glazed pictorial boards. Expertly and almost invisibly rebacked, later bright yellow endpapers. Light wear to extremities, otherwise a very good copy.

“Although this book was published in an edition of 19,500 copies, John Ruskin complained: ‘There is no joy and very, very little interest in any of these Flower book subjects, and they look as if you had nothing to paint them with but starch and camomile tea.’ Kate Greenaway, in a letter to Mrs. Arthur Severn, said: ‘Mr. Ruskin thinks it very bad… I am very disgusted myself—only I don’t feel I am so much to blame as the printers, who have literally blotted every picture out’” (Osborne Collection).

Osborne Collection I, p. 201. Schuster & Engen 107 (1a). Thomson 79d and 79e.

Price: $200.00