Craig, Eric (1829-1923)
'New Zealand Ferns' [cover-title], c.1870-80
£504
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 28 September 2022 from 10:00 BST
Description
4to, original bevelled wooden boards with incised decorative panelling, gilt calf backstrip, 32 card leaves with pressed fern specimens mounted mainly on rectos only, printed caption-slips, front joint splitting, occasional spotting, offsetting and discolouration, minor loss to a few specimens
Footnote
Note:
Eric Craig, a Scottish-born Auckland resident who had previously worked as a builder and carpenter, began producing albums of fern specimens for sale during the 1870s. The first scientific account on New Zealand ferns, Hooker's Flora Novae-Zelandiae, had appeared only a few years earlier, in 1855. See further Goulding, ‘Early Publications and Exhibits of New Zealand Ferns and the Work of Eric Craig’, Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum, Vol. 14 (10th December 1977), pp. 63-79).