Pomology.- Decaisne (J.) Le Jardin Fruitier du Muséum, 9 vol., 508 plates, most engraved and printed in colour, or chromolithographed, some finished by hand, a few folding, light scattered foxing, loose as issued, contemporary cloth-backed chemise with cloth ties, paper labels to spines, spines browned, some splitting to joints, printed titles pasted to upper covers (a little soiled), rubbed, edges uncut, [Nissen BBI 456; Stafleu & Cowan 1338], small folio, Paris, 1862-75.

⁂ One of the rarest iconographies on fruit, with plates by A. Riocreux. The first 6 volumes depict pears, whilst the remainder depict peaches, prunes, apricots, strawberries, and currants.

The most sensitive and skilful French botanical artist of the period was Alfred Riocreux (1820-1912) who may be considered the Paris counterpart of Walter Hood Fitch... Trained by his father, the boy progressed so rapidly with drawing and painting that the sketches which he made at the age of thirteen were considered worth preserving at Sèvres. The botanist Adolphe Théodore Brongniart (1801-76), whose father had also been employed at Sèvres, directed the attention of the young Riocreux to botany and was probably also responsible for bringing him to the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle. Here the young artist met Joseph Decaisne (1807-82) for whose superb 'Le Jardin Fruitier du Muséum'... he made the drawings..."(Blunt pp.229-230).