ESSAY ON MODERN GARDENING. = ESSAI SUR L'ART DES JARDINS MODERNES [...], TRADUIT EN FRANÇOIS PAR M. LE DUC DE NIVERNOIS, EN MDCCLXXXIV.

Description: 4to: [3]-94 pp. - First single edition, with the text in English and French, of the famous "Essay" by the English politician and writer Horace Walpole (1717-1797), one of the 400 copies printed in July and August 1785 on his own press in Strawberry Hill. Half of them were offered by Walpole to his friends, the other half were intended for the translator, Louis-Jules Mancini-Mazarini Duke of Nivernais (1716-1798). None was put on the market. The English text of the "Essay" was first published in 1780 in Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting" (vol. 4). This important work in the field of the history of the English garden was also the most influential and is still relevant today for any lover of landscaped gardens. Half title in English with a vignette engr. by Charles Grignon, representing a view of Strawberry Hill, with Walpole's coat of arms and motto; woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. - Prov. Horticultural Society of New York (nice "Art nouveau" bookplate and dry stamp). - R. Smyth W.S. (stamp on the half title). - Ref. De Ganay 118. - Kat. Berlin 3425. - Hunt II:675. - Ransom, Strawberry Hill Press, 29. - Hazen, A bibliography of Horace Walpole, 25. - Clarke, Stephen - The Strawberry Hill Press & its printing house. London, 2011, pp. 47, 50, 76. - Joined, same author: Journal of the printing-office at Strawberry Hill. Now first printed from the MS. of Horace Walpole. With notes by Paget Toynbee [...]. (London), Chiswick Press for Constable and Company, and Houghton Mifflin Company, 1923. 4to: 150 pp. Half vellum, gilt spine. Untrimmed copy. Ed. limited to 650 copies. Prov. M.A. Thomson (ms. mention). - E.B. Basden, 1963 (idem). - Bucks County Library (shelf mark with withdrawn stamp). (2 vol.)

Condition: Modern midnight blue half morocco, flat spine, gilt title. Untrimmed copy. Artist Name: WALPOLE, Horace Circa: 1785