THE FRENCH GARDINER, instructing how to cultivate all sorts of FRUIT-TREES, and HERBS for the GARDEN, together with directions to dry and conserve them in their natural, an accomplished piece. by BONNEFONS, Nicolas de, JOHN ROSE and JOHN EVELYN ON WINE.: - 1675

London, printed by T.R. & N.T. for B. Tooke, and are to be sold at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1675.. Written originally in French, and now translated into English by JOHN EVELYN, Esq; Fellow of the Royal Society. Edition illustrated with sculptures. Whereunto is annexed, THE ENGLISH VINEYARD VINDICATED by JOHN ROSE, now gardener to his Majesty: with a tract titled VINTAGE by JOHN EVELYN, MAKING AND ORDERING OF WINES IN FRANCE. THIRD EDITION 1675, the Dedication to Thomas Henshaw is signed by John Evelyn, followed by To The Reader. Small 8vo, approximately 140 x 90 mm, 5½ x 3½ inches, engraved title page plus 4 engraved plates, 1 folding in the Vineyard section. Pages: [8],1-294, title page for The English Vineyard Vindicated, [12], 13-36, then: VINTAGE by John Evelyn, pages 38-48, followed by [16] pages of the Table. Full calf, original spine relaid, gilt lettering and decoration to spine, gilt rules to edges of covers, and gilt date to foot of spine, dentelles to first cover with binder's name in gilt, Sangorski & Sutcliffe, and dentelles to rear cover with gilt name of E. P. Dutton & Company, endpapers replaced at sometime. Slightly trimmed copy, covers slightly scuffed, frontispiece has professional neat repair to inner margin, no loss to image, top corner neatly repaired nowhere near image, pale age-browning to title page, 3 leaves have small burn hole with loss to 6 letters but easily understood, tip of 3 corners missing not affecting image or text, tiny worm track to outer margins to a few pages, a few small nicks to edges of margins, nowhere near text, pale age-browning throughout and an occasional tiny black spot, occasional misnumbering to pages, all catch words correct, otherwise a very good copy. The first edition of the English Vineyard Vindicated was published in 1666 and is very rare as most copies are reputed to have perished in the Fire of London, the only copy of the first edition we could find, sold at Sotheby's in 2015. See: Forum Auctions, Fox Pointe Manor Library, 24th September 2020, Lot 246. Geoffrey Keynes, John Evelyn, Bibliography of his Writings, pages 51-53, & 180-182, "Called on the title page The Third Edition, though actually it is the fourth, the type having been entirely reset"; Christies, The Evelyn Library, Part iv, page 104, No.1720; The Hunt Catalogue of Botanical Books, Volume 1, page 332, No. 312; Blanche Henrey, British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800, Volume 1, page 231; James M. Gabler, Wine into Words listing the edition of 1672; Stanley H. Johnston, The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical and Horticultural Collections, pages 222-223, listing the 1672 edition; Sandra Raphael, An Oak Spring Pomona, page 14, No. 4; Geoffrey Keynes lists several editions: third edition 1672; fourth edition 1675 (stating 3rd edition on title page) and fifth edition 1691 (stating fourth edition on title page). MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.