RISSO, Antoine; POITEAU, Antoine. Histoire naturelle des orangers.
Paris: Hérissant Le Doux, 1818-1822.

Folio (359 x 272 mm). (1) f., 280 pp., 109 pl., (1) f.
Contemporary red half morocco, smooth spine with gilt and blind roll, authors and title in gilt, untrimmed.

First edition, in excellent condition.
A remarkable study of over 70 varieties of sweet and bitter oranges, nearly fifty varieties of lemons, and a smaller number of limes, citrons and grapefruits. The volume comprises a total of 109 colour-engraved and printed plates, enhanced by hand.

The work was published in 19 instalments between July 1818 and August 1820. It remains one of the finest examples of 19th-century colour printing. The illustrations are by Antoine Poiteau (1766–1854) and were produced by seven talented engravers: V. Bonnefoi, Chailly, Dien, Gabriel, Legrand, T. Susémihl and Texier.

Antoine Poiteau was a French apothecary and botanist who spent his entire life in Nice. He trained, however, as an apprentice gardener at the Jardin des Plantes, then spent some time in the Caribbean collecting plants before returning to devote himself to botanical illustration. His style is undeniably inspired by the two great masters of the early 19th century: Van Spaendonck and Redouté, whose talent needs no introduction.
"It contains exquisite drawings of every known variety of orange, lemon and grapefruit, and their congeners, fruits that hang from the leaves, alternately, like suns or moons, with every kind of rind, and shaped like gourds or pitchers, misshapen and peculiar, or again, authentic globes of fire, whether pale, as of moonlight, or red-gold like the sun but half-hidden, as in poetry, in its own green shade. A beautiful and inspiring work, in its own way no less so than Redoute's Les Liliacees... or Les Roses..." (Great Flower Books, p. 23).

From the libraries of La Rochefoucauld, Duke of Bisaccia (his bookplate); Marcel Lecomte (his bookplate).
Sitwell, Great Flower Books, p. 133 (1990 ed.); Raphael, An Oak Spring Pomona 76; Nissen, BBI, 1640; Dunthorne, 263; Stafleu & Cowan 9248.