SOTHEBY`S Auctioneers of Literary Property and Works Illustrated of the Fine Arts:

Published in London, 1987, hardcover, burgundy cloth binding with floral print in gilt margin to front cover, illustrated, 430 pages, 22.2 cms x 27.8 cms x 3.3 cms, condition: as new.

The catalogue's introduction states this to be "the finest collection of botanical colour-plate books ever offered at auction". 

Robert de Belder, a diamond merchant, who bought and restored the Kalmthout Arboretum in Belgium in the 1950s, built up the greatest private collection of botanical books in the world, securing many of the very best copies from the Arpad Plesch collection, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Library, virtually the entire rare book collection of the Horticultural Society of New York, as well as many other distinguished collections. His collection was initially offered for sale en bloc without success, before being acquired by Quaritch who finally consigned the colour-plate books to auction - in the process revolutionising price levels for this sort of material. Catalogued here are some 388 lots being the chief monuments of botanical illustration from the period 1600 -1900. Each lot is carefully described and annotated, with the great majority of lots illustrated, usually in colour. 

An exceptional survey of the classic botanical books.