A Victorian Album Of Wild Flowers & Botanical Specimens, Compiled By Alice Piper (1880-1893)
SOLD
Origin: England/Australia
Period: Victorian
Provenance: Unknown
Date: 1886
Width: 15cms
Height: 20cms
(4to)
A charming album containing over 180 beautifully preserved actual specimens of wild flowers. Each specimen is captioned, sometimes with the common name, or Latin, or both, in black ink, and underlined in red. Several pages are dated, and, interestingly, some pages carry headed notepaper from the Grand Central Coffee Palace, of Clarence St., Sydney. Specimens include thistle, wild carrot, wild thyme, Blackberry Leaf, as well as numerous other leaves, herbs, and flowers.
The binding is contemporary cloth, and a little worn at the edges. There is a manuscript title label on the upper cover. Although we have not been able to trace any biographical information on the compiler, this is a wonderful, curious, and beautiful example of collecting in the nineteenth century.